All Articles Tagged "federal aid"
Record Number of Americans Receiving Gov’t Aid
(USA Today) — Americans depended more on government assistance in 2010 than at any other time in the nation’s history, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds. The trend shows few signs of easing, even though the economic recovery is nearly 2 years old. A record 18.3% of the nation’s total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs in 2010. Wages accounted for the lowest share of income — 51.0% — since the government began keeping track in 1929. The income data show how fragile and government-dependent the recovery is after a recession that officially ended in June 2009.
Questions Over Plan to Boost Small Business Lending
(Wall Street Journal) — The Obama administration’s latest attempt to jump-start small-business lending is facing headwinds even before it launches. The U.S. Treasury Department plans to release in coming days the criteria banks must meet to tap a $30 billion lending fund aimed at helping small businesses. The program is expected to include enticement for smaller banks to tap the fund, including an interest rate of as little as 1% and an opportunity for banks that still have Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to substitute new government funds with fewer strings and less stigma.
Black Farmers Settlement Approved
(New York Times) — The House has given final Congressional approval to a bill that would provide more than $4.55 billion to settle tens of thousands of longstanding claims brought by African Americans farmers and American Indians. The bill provides $1.15 billion to African Americans left out of a 1999 settlement of a lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman; in that settlement the federal government agreed to compensate black farmers and would-be farmers who said Agriculture Department officials denied or cheated them out of federal aid. To be eligible for money now, claimants must have farmed or attempted to farm between 1981 and 1986, have filed a discrimination complaint before July 1, 1987, and have filed a claim after the deadline in the original settlement.
Pell Grants On The Line
(CNNMoney.com) — On Sunday, the House is set to vote on an historic overhaul of the nation’s health care system. It will also take up an issue that will get far less attention but could affect the wallets of millions of Americans.
The nation’s popular Pell grant program, which provides federal grants to millions of Americans based on financial need, is facing a $19 billion budget gap.
