Jacob Fishler head shot

Jacob covers federal policy and helps direct national coverage as deputy Washington bureau chief for States Newsroom. Based in Oregon, he focuses on Western issues. His coverage areas include climate, energy development, public lands and infrastructure.

Before joining States Newsroom, Jacob was a national reporter for CQ Roll Call, where he covered state policy trends and federal-state relations. He also wrote about transportation and infrastructure policy on Capitol Hill for CQRC. He began his career covering local government for The Monitor newspaper in McAllen, Texas.

Originally from Minneapolis, Jacob has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

A mail ballot drop box is seen at a polling station on Nov. 4, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Trump administration on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a district court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s broad March 31 executive order restricting vote-by-mail. The move came just two days after a federal appeals court denied...
Federal agents on patrol in Minneapolis in January. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Three people who observed federal immigration enforcement during the Trump administration’s sometimes-violent surge said in a federal lawsuit filed Friday the Department of Homeland Security illegally recorded them and revoked their status in the department’s trusted traveler programs. The suit...
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the East Room of the White House on July 16, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Saul Loeb/Getty Images)
The nation’s election infrastructure is vulnerable to cyberattacks by foreign actors, President Donald Trump said during a primetime address Thursday night, citing a batch of documents he declassified — but providing no proof broad interference actually occurred or affected an...
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3, 2026 in Keystone, South Dakota. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump said Friday morning he would not sign federal legislation aimed at lowering the cost of housing, but the bipartisan package became law at 12:01 a.m. Saturday anyway. In a post to his social media site, Trump again...
Booths await voters during the May 19, 2026, primary election at Temple View Elementary School in Idaho Falls, Idaho. (Photo by Pat Sutphin/Idaho Capital Sun)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s guidelines to states on how to request funding under counterterrorism grant programs include potentially illegal demands related to election administration, Democrats on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee said Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security...
President Donald Trump faces a decision by midnight Friday, July 10, 2026 on a bipartisan housing bill passed by large majorities in Congress. In this photo, Trump attends a meeting at the G7 Summit on June 17, 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump is running out of time to decide what to do with a bipartisan bill meant to lower housing costs by making it easier to build. If Trump does not sign the measure, it would become law at...
Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, said he told U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner of Maine he should "step aside." In this photo, Sanders, right, rallies with Platner in Portland on May 25, 2026. (Photo by Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
A host of high-profile Democrats called for Graham Platner, the party’s nominee to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in November’s election, to drop out of the race as they tried to save the party’s chances to...
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 29, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Nerwsroom)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday kept in place state laws banning transgender athletes from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams. The decision stems from challenges to bans in Idaho and West Virginia and marks a major...
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former National Security Advisor John Bolton departs U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland after a plea deal hearing on June 26, 2026 in Greenbelt, Maryland. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
John Bolton, a national security adviser to President Donald Trump in his first term, pleaded guilty Friday to a federal charge of mishandling classified information, the Department of Justice said in a news release Friday. The plea resolves an 18-count...
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 29, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
State courts cannot find liability for labeling shortcomings in pesticides and similar products because such products are covered by federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday in a decision backing agricultural giant Monsanto. The justices, in a 7-2 decision...
Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on June 24, 2026. The hall was set up for a ceremony in which President Donald Trump would sign into law a broadly bipartisan housing bill, but Trump abruptly canceled the event. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
President Donald Trump derailed a housing overhaul that he was set to sign into law Wednesday, canceling a signing ceremony for the broadly popular bipartisan bill until Congress passes an election security measure. Trump had been scheduled to sign the...
The U.S. House passed an affordable housing bill on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk a day after a Senate vote. Trump is expected to sign it into law. (Photo by Grace Cary/Getty Images)
The U.S. House cleared a bipartisan housing policy overhaul Tuesday, aiming to lower the cost of homeownership as members of both parties attempt to focus on affordability issues ahead of November’s midterm elections. The House passed the bill, 358-32, sending...