Food stamps to get their biggest boost ever, with benefits rising more than 25%
CBSN
The Biden administration is overhauling food stamps by putting in place a permanent increase in grocery benefits, providing a 27% bump in aid that marks the biggest-ever increase for the program. The boost comes as a temporary increase of 15% was set to expire next month.
The boost will go into effect on October 1 for the roughly 42 million people currently receiving food stamps, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on a conference call about the changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the official name for food stamps. On a per-person basis, benefits on average will add about $36 per month to the pre-pandemic level of about $121 per person each month, the agency said. Increasing the benefits will boost the annual cost of the program by about $19 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program.Billions of cicadas are emerging across about 16 states in the Southeast and Midwest. Periodical cicadas used to reliably emerge every 13 or 17 years, depending on their brood. But in a warming world where spring conditions arrive sooner, climate change is messing with the bugs' internal alarm clocks.
Senate Democrats to unveil package to protect IVF as party makes reproductive rights push this month
Washington — A group of Senate Democrats is set to unveil a new package to protect access to IVF on Monday, as the party makes a push around reproductive rights this month — two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.