Home ownership more elusive for young Americans
For younger Americans, owning a home is increasingly out of reach. The age of first-time homebuyers is now at a record high of 38 years old. Bidding wars in some neighborhoods are driving up prices. NBC News' Christine Romans reports on younger Americans getting 'priced out.'
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
GOP student loan overhaul is getting closer to becoming law
Read more: Republicans propose massive overhaul of student loans, Pell Grants The Senate's version of the legislation is less aggressive than the bill that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced in late April. While it will likely be further watered down due to congressional budget rules, the scope of the legislation indicates big changes will be enacted soon to how Americans pay for college. Student loan caps proposed When President Donald Trump asked Republicans to find billions of dollars in federal spending cuts, GOP lawmakers in the House drew up measures to eliminate or dramatically curb many student loan programs. In April, they proposed cutting subsidized loans altogether for undergraduates. When students take out a federal direct subsidized loan, the government pays the interest while they're in school (and for a short grace period after the students complete their studies). That idea didn't survive in the Senate version of the bill, which was expected to be slightly more moderate than the House proposal. Read more: Could Trump fail on tax bill? Why going 'big' doesn't always work out as planned Other elements of the House version remain, however. Like the House bill, the Senate measure proposes cutting the number of student loan repayment plans to just two. That change would kill President Joe Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, program, which former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona repeatedly called the "most affordable repayment plan ever." SAVE has been stalled in court for months, placing roughly 8 million people in forbearance. The Senate bill would also dramatically curb lending for graduate students and parents (though at lower caps than House Republicans wanted). Ben Cecil, a senior education policy advisor at Third Way, a center-left think tank, said he was pleased to see the bill appeared to make compromises. "These loan limits are much more reasonable," he said. Melanie Storey, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said she was "relieved" some of the "most harmful" provisions of the House bill had been nixed. "Still, there are several concerning aspects of this bill that would ultimately make college less affordable for students," she said, including changes that "may drive borrowers to riskier private loans, which are not available to all borrowers." Less concern over Pell Grants One of college access groups' biggest criticisms of the initial bill was a significant change to Pell Grants, federal subsidies that help lower-income students pay for college. House Republicans wanted to increase the number of credits students would need to take each semester to be eligible for Pell Grants. The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, estimated that two out of three Pell recipients could've lost their grants or received smaller ones if that requirement were enacted. The Senate version takes a softer approach, codifying a provision to more fully exclude higher-income students qualify for Pell funds. At the same time, the bill expands Pell Grants in ways that could waste money, according to critics such as Sameer Gadkaree, president of The Institute for College Access & Success, a college affordability group. "While the Senate nixed most of the House's proposed cuts to the Pell Grant program and averts a looming funding shortfall, it regrettably threatens the program's long-term stability by extending Pell eligibility to unaccredited programs that are unlikely to pay off for students," Gadkaree said in a statement. New accountability rules One of the biggest distinctions between the House and Senate versions of the bill is that they lay out two entirely different sets of new accountability rules for colleges. The House proposal would fine colleges for leaving students on the hook for unpaid student loan debt. The Senate's framework suggests taking federal financial aid away from college programs if they can't prove that students who graduate are earning more than they would have without a degree. Mike Itzkowitz, who served in the Education Department under President Barack Obama, said that concept has bipartisan support. "I don't know anyone who would be willing to fork over their time to take on loans to earn less than a high school graduate," he said. But it's possible that particular provision won't survive special Senate rules. To avoid needing the support of Democrats, Republicans are trying to pass Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" using the budget process. That strategy comes with challenges. However, the bill must only make changes that spend money or save money. Significant reforms to college oversight might go too far, said Jon Fansmith, the senior vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education, the main association for colleges and universities. "This process isn't designed to do complicated policymaking," he said. "I really do worry about rushing something through without understanding what we're doing." Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@ Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @
The Independent
11 hours ago
- The Independent
Major airlines may have been secretly selling your flight data to DHS, report claims
Americans' flight data may have been sold to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without their knowledge, internal CBP documents obtained by 404 Media suggest. A data broker, the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), owned by several of the top airlines in the U.S., including Delta, American Airlines, and United, reportedly gathered the flight records of U.S. travelers and sold access to CBP. Part of the contract was that CBP wasn't allowed to share where the data had originated from, the report says. The data included passengers' names, itineraries, and financial information, according to Wired. CBP is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The agency has stated that it requires the data to support state and local law enforcement in tracking individuals of interest. This comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outlined how it also bought the data. 'The big airlines—through a shady data broker that they own called ARC—are selling the government bulk access to Americans' sensitive information, revealing where they fly and the credit card they used,' Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement. "ARC has refused to answer oversight questions from Congress, so I have already contacted the major airlines that own ARC—like Delta, American Airlines, and United—to find out why they gave the green light to sell their customers' data to the government." Publicly shared documents show that ARC is owned and operated by at least eight top U.S. airlines. Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, as well as European airlines Lufthansa and Air France, in addition to Air Canada, all have representatives on the company's board of directors. Over 240 airlines use ARC's services for ticket settlement. The company also connects airlines and travel agencies, locating travel trends with other companies such as Expedia. It also provides fraud prevention, the ARC YouTube channel and website show. The selling of travel information is conducted via the company's Travel Intelligence Program (TIP). The documents obtained by 404 Media via a Freedom of Information Act request state that CBP needed access to the information 'to support federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify persons of interest's US domestic air travel ticketing information.' The documents reveal that ARC asked CBP to 'not publicly identify vendor, or its employees, individually or collectively, as the source of the Reports unless the Customer is compelled to do so by a valid court order or subpoena and gives ARC immediate notice of same.' The data delivers 'visibility on a subject's or person of interest's domestic air travel ticketing information as well as tickets acquired through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories,' the documents state. According to a DHS Privacy Impact Assessment, the data is updated daily and includes more than a billion records over the course of 39 months of travel, both past and future. TIP can be searched using names, credit cards, or airlines. However, the data only includes travel arrangements made using a travel agency accredited by ARC, such as Expedia. 'If the passenger buys a ticket directly from the airline, then the search done by ICE will not show up in an ARC report,' the assessment states. It also says that data is included on both U.S. and non-U.S. persons. The deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology's Security and Surveillance Project, Jake Laperruque, told 404 Media that 'While obtaining domestic airline data—like many other transaction and purchase records—generally doesn't require a warrant, they're still supposed to go through a legal process that ensures independent oversight and limits data collection to records that will support an investigation.' 'The government seems intent on using data brokers to buy their way around important guardrails and limits,' he added. A spokesperson for CBP told Wired that the agency 'is committed to protecting individuals' privacy during the execution of its mission to protect the American people, safeguard our borders, and enhance the nation's economic prosperity.' 'CBP follows a robust privacy policy as we protect the homeland through the air, land and maritime environments against illegal entry, illicit activity or other threats to national sovereignty and economic security,' the spokesperson added. ARC earlier told The Lever that TIP 'was established after the September 11 terrorist attacks to provide certain data to law enforcement … for the purpose of national security matters' and criminal probes.
NBC News
18 hours ago
- NBC News
Trump says China tariffs will stay high after two days of talks
The U.S. will keep high tariffs on Chinese goods, President Donald Trump said Wednesday morning, touting a preliminary trade agreement that he and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will need to approve. China will supply rare earth minerals and magnets "up front," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, although he didn't clarify the exact terms. Trump also said "we are getting a total of 55% of tariffs, China is getting 10%" without explaining further. A White House official told NBC News that the 55% figure isn't new, as it reflects the 30% tariffs Trump has implemented this year in addition to pre-existing duties totaling 25%. The president's announcement came the morning after top-level U.S. and Chinese officials wrapped up two days of negotiations in London that were meant to get a trade truce, originally brokered in Geneva last month, back on track. Trump's post also went further than what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of the top U.S. negotiators in London, said about the outcome of the negotiations. 'We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,' Lutnick told reporters Tuesday night. "I think we have the two largest economies in the world have reached a handshake for a framework." Trump added in a later Truth Social post that "President XI and I are going to work closely together to open up China to American Trade." The American negotiators on Tuesday night did not announce any major modifications to Chinese market access for U.S. companies after the conclusion of talks. Additionally, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said there were no further meetings planned with Chinese officials. Lutnick and Greer did not commit to releasing the "framework" agreed upon in London either. Chinese officials, likewise, said the two sides agreed in principle on a consensus regarding the Geneva agreement but did not provide any specific details. The talks in London occurred after the U.S. and China accused each other of breaching a pact reached in early May, which led to both countries lowering tariffs by 115%. Part of that agreement was easing export restrictions on rare earth minerals and metals that are critical for everyday products such as batteries and automobile production.
