US NATIONAL NEWS
AP: COVID Relief Bill Could Permanently Alter Social Safety Net
Published
5 years agoon
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package is being hailed by Democrats and progressive policy advocates as a generational expansion of the social safety net, providing food and housing assistance, greater access to health care and direct aid to families in what amounts to a broad-based attack on the cycle of poverty.
With more than $6 billion for food security-related programs, more than $25 billion in emergency rental assistance, nearly $10 billion in emergency mortgage aid for homeowners, and extensions of already-expanded unemployment payments through early September, the package is full of provisions designed to help families and individuals survive and recover from pandemic-induced economic hardships.
“When you stand back and look at it, that’s when you really can appreciate the sheer scope of it,” said Ellen Vollinger, legal director for the Food Research & Action Center, a food-security advocacy group. “The scope is both impressive and much needed.”
Several aspects seem targeted at restructuring the country’s social safety net and actually lifting people out of poverty. It’s the kind of ambition and somewhat old school Democratic Party ideal that has observers referencing former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal.
“We haven’t seen a shift like this seen since FDR. It’s saying families are too big to fail, children are too big to fail, the elderly are too big to fail,” said Andre Perry, senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. “It’s a recognition that the social safety net is not working and was not working prior to the pandemic.”
Biden himself, when signing the package into law Thursday, referenced it as an overt attempt to redraw the country’s economic fault lines in a way that’s bigger than the pandemic. “This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation, working people and middle-class folks, the people who built the country — a fighting chance,” Biden said.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called it “one of the most transformative and historic bills any of us will ever have the opportunity to support.”
Perry in particular pointed to the expansion of the child tax credit system as a potentially foundational change. The legislation provides families with up to $3,600 this year for each child and also expands the credit to millions of families currently making too little to qualify for the full benefits.
“That is really going to put a dent in child poverty,” Perry said.
In promoting the child tax credit expansion, Democrats rallied around an analysis that predicted it would cut nationwide child poverty by 45%.
The legislation extends through September last year’s 15% increase in benefits offered by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, commonly known as food stamps. It also provides extra funds to administer the expanded SNAP program and to expand access to SNAP online purchasing.
The package also includes what amounts to the biggest expansion of federal help for health insurance since the Obama-era Affordable Care Act more than 10 years ago. Several million people could see their health insurance costs reduced, and there’s also an incentive for states to expand Medicaid coverage, if they haven’t already done so.
Those changes, however, won’t be as immediate as the direct cash injections in other areas.
Housing advocates give generally positive reviews, saying the massive relief packages for both renters and home owners should be enough to stave off the debts incurred so far. “This is an appropriate response for an unprecedented time. Clearly there’s a tremendous need to avoid an eviction tsunami,” said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
But she also warned that the economic hardships, and need for assistance, will extend past the end of the pandemic.
“Many of the jobs that low-income workers have lost won’t come back right away,” she said.
Yentel called on Biden to extend the national moratorium on evictions via executive order. The current moratorium, imposed by the Centers for Disease Control as part of the national health emergency, is being challenged in multiple court cases and expires at the end of March.
Many of the legislation’s changes are temporary, but advocates and Democratic legislators are talking openly about making some of them permanent.
“Getting something out of the code is often times harder than getting something into the code,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., told reporters Tuesday, referring to the relief bill’s expansion of the child tax credit.
He added, “What we did is unlikely to go away.”
At this point, the child tax credit expansion would expire at the end of the year without some sort of congressional intervention. But permanently enshrining those changes into law could be a battle. Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated the child tax credit’s cost at $110 billion, making it one of the single most expensive items in the whole package. Extending that over multiple years would be extremely costly, and would likely draw serious opposition, especially from Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, called Democrats’ expansion of those credits “sweeping new government benefits with no work requirements whatsoever,” suggesting the shape of the GOP opposition strategy ahead. But the provision is projected to lift millions of families out of poverty, and progressives believe there will be tremendous pressure on Republicans to allow the change.
Many also want to preserve the bill’s temporarily beefed up earned income tax credit, and its improved tax breaks for caring for children and dependents and for paid sick and family leave.
A study by the Tax Policy Center concluded that the relief package would reduce federal taxes in 2021 by an average of $3,000 per household. Low- and moderate-income households (making $91,000 or less) would receive nearly 70 percent of the tax benefits, the study concluded.
“The question will be do they want child poverty to go back up again” by letting that credit expire, said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy for the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
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Tech
NASA Rolls Out Massive SLS Rocket Stage for Artemis III Mission to Kennedy Space Center
Published
4 weeks agoon
April 13, 2026By
Willie David
NEW ORLEANS (FNN) — NASA will roll out the largest section of its Space Launch System rocket on Monday, April 20, marking a major milestone for the Artemis III mission.
The section, representing the top four-fifths of the SLS core stage, is being moved from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. It includes the liquid hydrogen tank, liquid oxygen tank, intertank and forward skirt. The structure will be loaded onto NASA’s Pegasus barge for transport to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
CORE STAGE DELIVERY AND INTEGRATION
Once the core stage arrives at Kennedy Space Center, teams will complete final outfitting and vertical integration. The hardware will then be transferred to NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program for stacking and launch preparation.
The Artemis III engine section and boat-tail, which protects the engines during launch, were previously moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building in July 2025. The four RS-25 engines are scheduled to arrive from Stennis Space Center in Mississippi no later than July 2026 for integration.
POWERING THE ARTEMIS III MISSION
Equipped with four RS-25 engines, the SLS core stage will generate more than 2 million pounds of thrust, enabling the launch of astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft.
Artemis III is currently targeted for launch in 2027, following the successful Artemis II mission, which completed a crewed flight around the Moon on April 10.
NASA’S MOON-TO-MARS STRATEGY
The Artemis III mission is part of NASA’s broader Artemis program, aimed at returning astronauts to the Moon and establishing a sustained human presence.
The mission will test critical capabilities, including rendezvous and docking between the Orion spacecraft and commercial systems needed for future lunar landings, currently planned for 2028.
NASA is working in partnership with Boeing, the SLS core stage lead contractor, and L3Harris Technologies, the lead contractor for the RS-25 engines. The core stage remains the backbone of the SLS rocket and is manufactured at the Michoud Assembly Facilit
Tech
NASA’s Artemis II Astronauts Begin Historic Journey Around the Moon After Key Orion Engine Burn
Published
1 month agoon
April 3, 2026By
Willie David
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (FNN) — For the first time in more than 50 years, astronauts on a NASA mission are headed around the Moon after successfully completing a critical burn of the Orion spacecraft’s main engine.
The approximately six-minute firing of Orion’s service module engine Thursday — known as the translunar injection burn — accelerated the spacecraft and its crew beyond Earth’s orbit, placing them on a trajectory toward the Moon.
Aboard the spacecraft are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
“Today, for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, humans have departed Earth orbit,” said Dr. Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy now are on a precise trajectory toward the Moon. Orion is operating with crew for the first time in space, and we are gathering critical data and learning from each step.”
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, beginning a planned 10-day test mission around the Moon and back.
Successful Launch and Spacecraft Activation
Shortly after reaching space, Orion deployed its four solar array wings, allowing the spacecraft to generate power from the Sun. The crew and mission controllers then began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to normal flight operations while checking critical onboard systems.
About 49 minutes into the flight, the rocket’s upper stage fired to place Orion into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second burn propelled the spacecraft — named “Integrity” by the crew — into a high Earth orbit extending roughly 46,000 miles above the planet for nearly 24 hours of system testing.
Following the maneuver, Orion separated from the upper stage and began flying independently.
System Tests and Crew Operations in Space
During the early phase of the mission, the astronauts conducted a manual piloting demonstration to evaluate Orion’s handling capabilities using the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage as a docking target.
After the test, Orion executed an automated departure burn to safely move away from the stage. The propulsion stage later performed a disposal burn before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere over a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.
Before its re-entry, four small CubeSats were deployed from the rocket’s Orion stage adapter to conduct separate scientific missions.
Mission teams also transitioned communications to NASA’s Deep Space Network while the crew adjusted to the space environment. Astronauts completed their first rest periods, performed onboard exercise routines, restored the spacecraft’s toilet to normal operations and prepared the spacecraft for the translunar injection burn.
Lunar Flyby and Artemis Program Goals
The crew is scheduled to conduct a lunar flyby Monday, April 6, when astronauts will capture high-resolution images and make observations of the Moon’s surface — including portions of the lunar far side rarely seen directly by humans.
Although the far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the lighting conditions are expected to cast long shadows across the terrain, highlighting ridges, slopes and crater rims that are difficult to observe under full sunlight.
After completing the flyby, the astronauts will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
The mission marks a major milestone for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts on increasingly ambitious missions to explore the Moon, advance scientific discovery, stimulate economic growth and prepare for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Politics
Donald Trump Marks Policy Shift on Gender Identity, Education, and Federal Programs
Published
1 month agoon
March 31, 2026By
Willie David
WASHINGTON (FNN) — The administration of Donald Trump announced a series of policy changes affecting federal positions on gender identity, education standards, health care funding, and military service. Officials say the actions are intended to redefine federal policy around biological sex and limit government involvement in gender-related medical and educational programs.
The policy changes follow criticism from Republicans of earlier initiatives introduced during the administration of Joe Biden that expanded federal recognition of transgender individuals in several areas of public policy.
Federal Policy Defines Sex as Male or Female
The Trump administration declared that the official policy of the federal government recognizes only two sexes — male and female — based on biological characteristics.
Administration officials say the policy affects federal documents, agency rules and programs across multiple departments. The move also ended the practice of gender self-identification on certain federal records, including passports, according to officials.
Supporters say the change restores clarity to federal policy, while critics argue it removes recognition for transgender Americans in official government documentation.
Funding and Health Care Policies Adjusted
Federal agencies were directed to halt funding, sponsorship or promotion of certain medical procedures related to gender transition for minors. Administration officials say the directive is intended to prevent what they describe as irreversible medical interventions involving children.
Following the policy shift, several major health systems announced reviews, suspensions or changes to pediatric gender-related medical programs. The administration also directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to review existing medical evidence surrounding gender-related care for minors.
Changes in Education, Sports, and Military Policies
The administration also ended federal support for gender identity and equity curricula in public education programs receiving federal funds, stating the move reinforces parental rights and state oversight of school content.
Additional directives address athletic competition and military service. The administration announced policies intended to ensure that women’s sports competitions are limited to biological female athletes and reinstated standards for military service based on biological sex through the United States Department of Defense.
Officials say the changes are intended to focus federal programs on what they describe as fairness, safety and readiness across government institutions.
