Money in the News
Trending and breaking stories with a financial angle. This category covers the headlines that affect people’s wallets, from government policy shifts and cost of living changes to corporate upheaval and the financial side of technology. This is what keeps The Money Overview current with the broader news cycle.
Latest in Money in the News
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....
The Disney+ and Hulu ad-free bundle rises to $21.99 a month
The Disney+, Hulu Bundle Premium, the ad-free package that combines both apps, rose to $21.99 a month this week, a two-dollar increase from $19.99. The...
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...
Private mortgage insurance must drop off automatically once a loan reaches 78 percent of the home’s value
Private mortgage insurance on most home loans is required by federal law to end on its own once the loan’s original amortization schedule shows the...
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...
China’s 13 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans still dwarfs Brazil’s 3 percent after the Trump-Xi talks
Nearly a year after Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping first struck a trade truce, China’s total tariff on American soybeans still sits at 13 percent,...
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...
Under the Senate farm bill, states with food stamp error rates above 10 percent could pay up to 20 percent of benefits from 2030
A Senate Agriculture Committee bill would let the federal government push a much larger bill onto states that make too many mistakes issuing food stamps....
A Senate farm bill would delay states’ share of food stamp benefit costs by a year
A bill the Senate Agriculture Committee approved on September 16 would push back, by one year, a requirement forcing states to start covering part of...