Government & Policy
Legislation, executive orders, regulatory changes, and government actions that directly impact personal finances, taxes, benefits, or the economy.
Latest in Government & Policy
Food stamp households with an elderly or disabled member only have to pass the net income test
A food-stamp household with someone who is elderly or disabled clears eligibility under a shorter income test than everyone else who applies: only the net...
Eight states now enforce food stamp soda or candy limits, and five more start November 1
Eight states already bar SNAP shoppers from buying certain sodas or candy with food assistance, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food-restriction waiver table, updated...
Alaska and Hawaii can get good-faith exemptions from the food-stamp work time limit through 2028
Alaska and Hawaii are the only two states with a second route around SNAP’s tightened work-time limit, and the route has nothing to do with...
Ohio food stamp shoppers lose sugary drinks and all fountain drinks starting November 1
Ohio’s plan to strip sugary drinks and all fountain drinks from food-stamp purchases missed its original October 1 start after federal regulators asked the state...
Areas now need unemployment above 10% to waive the food-stamp work time limit
A change embedded in this year’s federal tax and spending law has raised the bar for waiving SNAP’s work-time limit for so-called able-bodied adults without...
VA says its disability claims backlog is down more than 70% since January 2025
VA said this week that its disability-claims backlog is down more than 70% since Jan. 20, 2025, a reduction the agency’s own release ties to...
Illinois has lost more than 368,000 food stamp recipients
Illinois lost more than 368,000 SNAP recipients, a drop of roughly 20 percent, in the fourteen months after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act took...
VA says it has processed more than 3 million disability claims this fiscal year, in record time
The Department of Veterans Affairs said this week it had processed more than 3 million disability benefits claims in fiscal year 2026, as of Sept....
Generic drugs stay exempt from Trump’s pharmaceutical tariffs, while patented imports can face a 100% rate
Commerce’s Sept. 23 guidance in the Federal Register drew the clearest line yet through the government’s pharmaceutical tariff program: generic drugs, for now, stay outside...
Trump’s 2027 pay plan freezes civilian federal salaries while troops get raises of 5% to 7%
President Donald Trump’s alternative pay plan for 2027, sent to Congress on August 26, holds civilian federal base pay and locality pay at their 2026...
The funding law Trump signed keeps the senior food-box program serving its current caseload through December 11
The stopgap spending law President Trump signed September 2 keeps a monthly food-box program for low-income older adults funded at its current size through December...
Fannie Mae lenders can now tell homeowners when they can drop private mortgage insurance
Fannie Mae servicers can now call a borrower first to say private mortgage insurance may be ready to end, instead of waiting for the homeowner...
Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri and Hawaii are next to limit food-stamp purchases, starting between February and April 2027
Four more states are set to change what SNAP benefits can buy at the register, according to USDA’s running list of approved food-restriction waivers. Wyoming’s...
Transferring a veteran’s military records to the VA takes 90 to 180 days, and Trump’s order aims to cut that
New veterans routinely wait 90 to 180 days for their own military service records to move from the Pentagon’s successor agency to the Department of...
People meeting SNAP or TANF work rules are exempt from Medicaid’s new work requirement
Medicaid’s new community-engagement rule does not make everyone prove work hours twice. Among the permanent exemptions in CMS’s interim final rule is a carve-out for...
The U.S. bans certain Canadian alcohol and dairy imports starting September 29
Starting at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on September 29, certain Canadian alcoholic beverages and certain Canadian dairy products can no longer enter the United States at...
Trump’s plan to suspend the 18.4-cent federal gas tax through 2026 has stalled in the House
A bill to suspend the federal government’s 18.4-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax and 24.4-cent diesel tax through the end of 2026 has gone nowhere in the House,...
Parents and family caregivers of children 13 and under are exempt from the Medicaid work rule arriving by January 1
CMS’s interim final rule on Medicaid’s new community-engagement requirement draws its caregiver exemption at a specific age: 13. Parents, guardians, caretaker relatives and family caregivers...
Trump keeps the fentanyl tariff on Chinese imports at 10 percent
The 10 percent tariff the United States has charged on most Chinese and Hong Kong imports since last November is staying at 10 percent rather...
The farm bill extension behind food stamp rules runs out September 30, and a Senate vote is not expected until after the midterms
The extension that has kept the 2018 farm bill’s food stamp rules operating expires September 30, five days from now, and the Senate is not...