A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to suspend construction of a $400 million ballroom after it demolished the East Wing of the White House. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington granted a preservationist group's request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts President Donald Trump's White House ballroom project. Leon wrote that the president is a steward of the White House, not its owner. The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to obtain an order pausing the ballroom project until it undergoes multiple independent reviews and receives congressional approval.

Vice President JD Vance has held the inaugural meeting of a new anti-fraud task force he's leading as the Trump administration seeks to show it's cracking down on potential misuse of social programs. Vance spoke Friday before the task force's closed-door meeting. The Republican vice president says the federal government for decades had not taken fraud seriously and it needed to be tackled with "a whole-government approach." President Donald Trump has made the crackdown on fraud part of a chief domestic focus as voters have said they're concerned about affordability ahead of November's midterm elections. Vance cites allegations of fraud in Minnesota, whose Democratic governor says Trump wants to "punish blue states."

President Donald Trump has signed a promised executive action that will pay Transportation Security Administration employees, after a deal that sought to do the same stalled in Congress. Trump signed the action Friday with an eye toward easing long security lines at many of the nation's top airports. "America's air travel system has reached its breaking point," Trump said in the memo authorizing the payments. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says TSA workers "should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday." Trump's action came after House Republicans rejected a Senate-passed bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security.

Senators are trying to moved quickly to debate a "last and final" offer to end the funding impasse involving the Department of Homeland Security. The funding lapse that's led to a partial government shutdown now in its 41st day has jammed airport security lines and put the livelihoods of Transportation Security Administration workers in jeopardy. Republicans are trying to address Democratic demands for changes to President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement changes. A test vote was failing to advance an earlier proposal, but a new approach appears to be taking shape. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he's given a the final offer to the Democrats.

The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration says it may have to shut down operations at some airports as travelers are experiencing record waiting times. In testimony Wednesday before a House committee, Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers and warned of potential airport closures. Bills and eviction notices are piling up, and some workers are resorting to plasma donations to make ends meet. Her appearance on Capitol Hill comes as the latest offer to end a funding impasse and put restraints on President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda is running into fierce resistance. But there appears to be no end in sight on the 40th day of the stalemate involving the Department of Homeland Security.

Senators are racing to clinch a proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown. The potential breakthrough in the monthlong standoff comes as airports experience long wait times. Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless it made changes to its immigration and deportation operations. But unpaid Transportation Security Administration workers are failing to show up for shifts and at least 458 have quit altogether. Asked about the emerging deal Tuesday, President Donald Trump says he's not happy with any deal. The deal would impose some of the restraints Democrats have demanded on immigration operations. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says it's time to end the standoff.

Armed federal immigration officers in tactical gear moved through terminals at some of the busiest U.S. airports Monday, standing near security lines and checkpoints after President Donald Trump ordered their deployment during a partial government shutdown that has disrupted air travel nationwide. The officers weren't making arrests or screening passengers. The Trump administration vaguely said they would supplement Transportation Security Administration staffing at certain airports. But after a year of intensified immigration enforcement and protests in cities across the country, their appearance at airport checkpoints has unsettled some travelers and raised new questions about how far their presence might extend.