Government & Policy
Legislation, executive orders, regulatory changes, and government actions that directly impact personal finances, taxes, benefits, or the economy.
Latest in Government & Policy
$5,780 monthly goes to Medal of Honor recipients in 2026
The Medal of Honor pension is a rare federal payment with a simple eligibility trigger and an unusually large monthly value. For the 2026 rate...
The Labor Department holds recovered back wages for three years before transferring them to Treasury
When the Labor Department recovers unpaid wages but cannot find the worker, the money does not remain available in the same system forever. The Wage...
Veterans awarded retroactive disability compensation can reclaim a VA home-loan funding fee
A later disability award can change the economics of a VA home loan that closed months or years earlier. The decisive date is not when...
$50,000 in USDA repair aid can reach eligible rural homeowners 62 and older
USDA’s Section 504 home-repair program can combine a loan of up to $40,000 with a grant of up to $10,000 for an eligible rural homeowner...
Georgia is sending surplus tax refunds of up to $500 to residents who filed 2024 and 2025 returns
Georgia is returning part of a multibillion-dollar budget surplus to residents this year, sending one-time refunds of up to $500 to taxpayers who filed both...
Low-income Colorado seniors can collect a rebate worth more than $1,100 a year
A Colorado program pays low-income residents 65 and older a rebate worth more than $1,100 a year to offset property tax, rent, and heating bills,...
$1,200 goes to every eligible Alaskan this year from the state’s oil-wealth fund
Eligible Alaskans are due about $1,200 from the state this year, the combined result of a $1,000 Permanent Fund Dividend and a separate $200 energy-relief...
California’s Climate Credit lands on power bills in August and September
Starting in 2026, California moved its residential electric Climate Credit off the calendar it had used for years and dropped it squarely onto August and...
Montana’s new homestead tax system could cut some homeowners’ property taxes about 18% this year
Montana rolled out a new homestead property tax system for 2026 that could trim the bill on an owner-occupied primary residence by roughly 18 percent...
The VA’s disability claims backlog fell below 70,000 for the first time since 2020
For the first time since early 2020, the number of Department of Veterans Affairs disability claims stuck in the backlog has dropped below 70,000, a...
Veterans can now file VA disability claims for high blood pressure, thyroid problems and sinus infections
Veterans who have quietly lived with high blood pressure, a thyroid disorder, or chronic sinus and nasal problems may now have a clearer path to...
A bipartisan Senate bill would cap insulin at $35 a month for all Americans in 2027
A proposal moving through the U.S. Senate would set a $35 monthly ceiling on insulin for nearly everyone who needs it, insured or not, beginning...
More than 1 million older Americans could lose SNAP food aid as work rules expand to age 64
A change buried in last year’s sprawling tax-and-spending law is now reaching older Americans who long assumed food assistance came without a work test. The...
Low-income wartime veterans and their survivors can qualify for a monthly VA pension many never claim
A tax-free monthly payment sits unused by many of the older Americans it was written for: the Department of Veterans Affairs pension for low-income wartime...
Texas freezes school property taxes for homeowners once they turn 65
Texas homeowners who reach 65 gain a property-tax protection that quietly caps one of the largest lines on their annual bill: the school district portion....
Bill Cassidy wants to shore up Social Security by investing part of its trust fund in the stock market
Senator Bill Cassidy is floating one of the more unconventional ideas in the Social Security debate: borrow roughly $1.5 trillion, park it in a fund...
Rick Scott is pushing a plan to let older Americans keep working without a Social Security penalty
A proposal from Senator Rick Scott would end a Depression-era rule that quietly docks the Social Security checks of retirees who keep working. The Senior...
A Senate bill would bar Social Security from clawing back overpayments more than 10 years old
A bipartisan bill advancing in the Senate would strip the Social Security Administration of one of its most feared powers: the authority to demand repayment...
New Medicaid work rules reach adults up to 64, not those 65 and older.
A major change to Medicaid eligibility now carries an age line that many older Americans will want to understand precisely: the program’s new community engagement...
A bipartisan Senate bill would raise base VA disability compensation for millions of veterans in late 2026.
A bipartisan measure moving through the Senate would raise the base rates of VA disability compensation for millions of veterans and for the survivors who...