Administration

WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is weighing a move to trim mortgage costs for first-time and lower-income buyers, a bid to boost affordability when average home prices are at an all-time high.President Biden’s affordability push has so far largely focused on steps to ease constraints on the supply of new homes, a primary driver of a rapid run-up in home prices in recent years. Steps to ease costs on certain borrowers could help modestly but more meaningful steps to address affordability are likely to come only from…

The Biden administration has reached a settlement with more than 200,000 students who said they were defrauded, mostly by for-profit colleges, paving the way for the immediate cancellation of around $6 billion in student loans. The proposed settlement, which must be approved by a federal judge, was agreed to by a group of borrowers who sued the Education Department in 2019 during the Trump administration, because they believed their fraud claims were being ignored by the department. The…

The Biden administration is moving forward on a plan to mandate the elimination of nearly all nicotine in cigarettes, a policy that would upend the $95 billion U.S. cigarette industry and, health officials say, prompt millions of people to quit smoking.The plan, unveiled Tuesday as part of the administration’s agenda of regulatory actions, likely wouldn’t take effect for several years. The FDA plans to publish a proposed rule in May 2023. Then it would invite public comments before publishing a final rule. Tobacco…

In recent weeks, top officials in the Biden administration and Federal Reserve have publicly conceded that they made mistakes in their handling of inflation. Behind their errors was a misreading of the economy. Advisers to President Biden and Fed officials worried the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions would bring similar consequences to the 2007-09 financial crisis: weak demand, slow growth, long periods of high unemployment and too-low inflation. So they applied the last playbook to the new crisis.…

The White House effort to require reduced nicotine levels in cigarettes would upend the tobacco industry. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images…

Airlines have lobbied White House officials in recent weeks to end the Covid-19 testing requirement, as it hurt their business. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images…

The Biden administration must protect young adults who could lose US immigration status because of processing delays for permanent residency, said tech companies including Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google. After turning 21, foreigners can no longer stay in the United States on their parents' work visas. If applications for their own visas are not processed by that birthday-as is often happening amid pandemic-induced delays - they must leave. Unlike millions of undocumented immigrants popularly known as "Dreamers"…

US President Joe Biden's administration must protect young adults who could lose US immigration status because of processing delays for permanent residency, tech companies including Amazon and Alphabet's Google said on Tuesday.After turning 21, foreigners can no longer stay in the US under parents' work visas. If applications for their own visas are not processed by that birthday — as is often happening amid pandemic-induced delays — they must leave.Unlike millions of undocumented immigrants popularly known as "Dreamers"…

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday selected four states that will be the first to tap into the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF), a $10 billion fund for broadband infrastructure and other digital connectivity projects. The initial round of funding from the CPF, totaling $583 million, will go to projects in Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia and West Virginia. All told, the first funding round should bring high-speed internet to more than 200,000 homes. The state plans are intended to deliver reliable internet…

Seeking to resolve a conflict in the solar industry, the White House plans to waive some tariffs on solar imports to ensure steady supplies while invoking the Defense Production Act to boost domestic manufacturing of solar parts. “It is going to put wind in the sails of construction projects all across the country,” a senior administration official said Monday. “We are going to grow and we aren’t playing for second place here.” The two-year waiver on tariffs is aimed at…