(AP) — A confidant of Bill Pulte .. provided confidential mortgage pricing data from Fannie Mae to a principal competitor, alarming senior officials .. who warned it could expose the company to claims that it was colluding with a rival to fix mortgage rates. apnews.com/article/fann...

NEW: DHS is pushing ahead in building a searchable national citizenship system it wants to use to go through voter rolls. Over 46 million voters have been run through the checks already. www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

I wish I could take credit for the phrase "new heights of flouting" but that came from the team at @theunpopulist.net who gave me the space for this take on the current landscape of congressional vs. executive power over spending. www.theunpopulist.net/p/founders-w...

A Trump appointee probes sensitive mortgage docs & refers critics for criminal prosecution. When the FHFA IG hands over docs related to the case, he's fired. When Fannie Mae watchdogs investigate, they're removed too. It's just the latest Admin attack on oversight. 🧵 www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

It is disgusting to see the agency in charge of LEGAL immigration celebrating a reduction in the total immigrant population. It shows that its goals are not the law and the best interest of the United States, but rather a weirdo obsession with birthplace over merit.

She doesn't even say those dead people were necessarily receiving benefits. It's the same shit Elon Musk tried to pull with Social Security. 3 million people die in the U.S. every year. She says, "we found almost 200,000 dead people," but doesn't finish the sentence with "...receiving benefits."

The Trump Admin's shameful attacks on kids with disabilities are happening on every front: legislation (OBBB), regs, and RIFs. The Social Security Administration's new proposed rule to limit SSI eligibility is yet another example. 1/ firstfocus.org/update/recen...

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities rely on SNAP. In my latest @19thnews.org, I talk to a bunch of policy people and economists, as well as Kajeana Tillman, who lives in the Bronx and just wants to get groceries like she usually does.

My latest on the lessons from the Administration's horrific freeze of SNAP food assistance. Balkinization: What the Administration’s SNAP Freeze Teaches Us share.google/PSeuJtcugMGO...

New at Can We Still Govern: The IRS is a key agency and its decline is emblematic of Trump-era mismanagement. @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social & Eliis Chen lay out the questions that Democrats should be asking its new leader. Incredibly informative piece. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/five-quest...

Trump's retaliatory firing of the Fannie Mae IG is merely the latest in a series of actions to undermine any meaningful oversight of his Administration. We wrote about the whole picture last week: www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

Ok but GUYS MY BOOK IS ACTUALLY OUT TODAY YOU CAN GO AND GET A COPY AND READ IT AND EVERYTHING www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/vanes...

HSAs are tax shelters masquerading as health policy. They don't help people who are struggling to afford health coverage. Read more from @nicolerapfogel.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/fh5rabhx

Jesus the administration is STILL fighting to keep 40 million people hungry www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Even as the Social Security Administration falsely claims that phone wait times are down to single-digit minutes, callers are recording dance routines to the hold music as they wait over two hours . . . equal parts adorable and horrifying! parade.com/news/80s-sta...

Astonishing how hard this administration is working to keep people hungry. It's clear they are trying maximize public suffering, in hopes of getting people to blame Dems for that suffering. But it's transparently the White House working overtime to keep the suffering going! bsky.app/profile/cram...

I asked Georgetown law prof David Super wtf is going on with this latest demand for states to claw back benefits already sent out. He says the law doesn't allow for this, and if the USDA is mad that states already sent out SNAP money, too bad—they were following USDA's own guidance. Full comments:

The Trump administration is now literally *fighting* to deny food to 42 million people, more than a third of them children. Read that again. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

SNAP surveys SNAP users. Already half of them are saying they are skipping meals.

What are the effects of the shutdown on SNAP users? Propel provides an app to SNAP users to allow them to track their spending and so can offer real-time estimates of needs. About 70% of SNAP households have a $10 or less balance on their SNAP card accounts. www.propel.app/shutdown-fun...

Shutdowns hurt people and it will be good news when the government reopens. But it is vital that Congress also address both the looming massive spike in health care costs for 20M *and* deliver a funding deal that the President can’t undo the parts he just doesn’t like. 🧵

President Trump just fired yet another Inspector General—the latest in a series of unprecedented, irresponsible & often illegal steps to evade accountability. Our latest explains how undercutting oversight hurts taxpayers & beneficiaries, including at Social Security. www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

The Social Security Administration used to have an incredible communications arm, including even a film unit. This was crucial in helping people understand the program, and how it would work. From 1936, 1939. www.ssa.gov/history/puba...

Wow, huge credit to Katie and the rest of the nutrition team at @centeronbudget.bsky.social. USDA has now issued revised numbers because CBPP caught them either accidentally or intentionally making huge errors that would severely underfund SNAP, in direct violation of court orders.

New data: CBPP analyzed USDA’s contingency fund spending plan & found it is only going to release 2/3 of the funding they committed to in court filings, cutting families’ SNAP benefits far more than necessary, violating USDA’s own regulations & shortchanging millions of families.

"Separation of powers" - mmm: might it also apply to actions like firing federal employees, impoundments, eliminating of agencies? Or just taxes.

It is a relief that the Administration is finally agreeing to do the bare minimum and follow the law by using the #SNAP contingency reserve to partially fund November SNAP benefits & nutrition assistance in Puerto Rico & American Samoa.

Until now, Social Security disability benefits got easier to qualify for as a person reached 50+. A new Trump plan would end that. Under the plan, millions, particularly in red states, could find it more difficult to qualify for disability benefits in the future. ➡️ More: propub.li/4oeO7VO

After repeatedly requesting permission and following all the official guidelines, Catholic bishop, priests, sisters and lay people were refused permission to distribute Communion to migrants in ICE detention center, on All Saints Day. A religious freedom issue: www.ncronline.org/news/ice-aga...

On All Saints/Souls weekend, I’m thinking of the late Bea Sacks. I met Bea when I was 18 & she was nearly 80. Despite our age difference, we were kindred spirits & our friendship changed my life. I still think of her with great fondness. ❤️

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Today’s rulings confirm what’s been clear all along: the Administration has been sitting on billions of available dollars that it is legally required to use to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need SNAP to afford their groceries.

Lots of wrong information coming from the Trump administration on SNAP "running out of money November 1" and the SNAP contingency fund. The truth is: 1) It *can* be used to cover SNAP benefits during a shutdown. 2) It actually *must* be used to cover SNAP benefits during a shutdown. Let's dig in.

A forthcoming Trump Administration disability rule may be the biggest disability cut of all time, making it harder for older applicants to qualify. “This is AARP’s population, and we’re very concerned about making it harder to get help when they need it.” www.aarp.org/social-secur...

Likewise, SSA didn’t collect evidence on citizenship when issuing SSNs until 1972. www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/...

The Trump Administration is creating a backdoor national registry using Social Security data that’s not always sufficient to identify citizens correctly. Congress never authorized this. It could disenfranchise legitimate voters. www.propublica.org/article/dhs-...

If SNAP benefits don’t go out November 1, it’s not because of the shutdown or because SNAP ran out of money. It’s because the Trump admin is illegally refusing to use the money in the SNAP contingency fund. The same admin that enacted the largest cuts to SNAP in history.

Watch @sharonparrott.bsky.social @centeronbudget.bsky.social explain what the Trump Administration should do to help families afford groceries & why there is no good excuse not to use SNAP contingency reserves.

Reality check: SNAP is widely used in red and blue states, in urban and rural areas, and benefits a large number of MAGA voters. And more than half of ACA enrollees live in Republican-controlled districts, per KFF. The pain will be broadly felt. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Historically, older women (65+) have had more or less rock solid confidence in Social Security, more or less across party lines. That may be changing.

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano keeps insisting he’s fixed phone service. But the truth is that pushing out humans who answer the phones, then unleashing bots on the millions of seniors, disabled people & bereaved families who call, has been a nightmare for many. wapo.st/4hC161y

Food bank director: “for every meal that a food bank provides, the SNAP program provides nine. There’s no way we can meet that gap.”

Was curious about the relationship between congressional district politics and SNAP recipients. While there are more households receiving SNAP in Harris-voting districts, there are more vulnerable people (kids, disabled and elderly) receiving them in Trump-voting ones. www.pbump.net/o/breaking-d...

It couldn't be clearer. The Trump Administration MUST use contingency reserves for SNAP benefits during the shutdown. It is the law & precedent. The Administration's choice treats people like political pawns rather than people who simply need help affording groceries.

It’s not just that they don’t have to turn off SNAP benefits — they’re not legally allowed to. They legally must use the contingency fund. The admin is pretending they can’t use it even though their own guidance from a month ago (that they’ve since deleted) contradicts that.

“Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil & his angels. “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in…I was sick…and you did not look after me.” Matthew 25:41-3

Hope is not a sentimental optimism that things will somehow work out; hope is the subversive conviction that injustice and death will not have the final word and acting on that belief. Hope is not passive waiting it’s active persistence. Hope prays, peacefully protests, weeps, and keeps showing up.

USDA is legally required to use the contingency funds on SNAP benefits for November. In July, President Trump and Congressional Republicans enacted the largest cuts to SNAP in history. The reason they aren't planning on providing SNAP benefits is that they don't want to.

My latest on the Administration's wildly unlawful shutdown of SNAP. To buy their argument, you must ignore the interpretation they took Sept. 30 and repeatedly in the first Trump Administration. Shamelesly and gratuitously cruel. Balkinization share.google/yaVtx89DJsIR...