Business News

  • After weeks of testing, an electronic system for filing returns directly to the IRS is now available for taxpayers from 12 selected states.

    March 12, 2024
  • Congress has ended the threat of a government shutdown until after the holidays. The Senate gave final approval to a temporary government funding package Wednesday night and sent it to President Joe Biden for his signature. The bill sets up a final confrontation on the government budget in the new year. The Senate worked into the night to pass the bill with days to spare before government funding expires Saturday. The spending package keeps government funding levels at current levels for roughly two more months while a long-term package is negotiated.

    November 16, 2023
  • The threat of a federal government shutdown ended late Saturday night after Congress approved a temporary funding bill to keep federal agencies open until Nov. 17. The bill passed just hours before the midnight deadline and President Joe Biden quickly signed it. He called it “good news for the American people.” The package drops aid for Ukraine but adds money for U.S. disaster assistance. House approval came after Speaker Kevin McCarthy abandoned plans for steep spending cuts and relied on Democratic help. Biden said he expects McCarthy to keep “his commitment” to the Ukrainian people and push for aid “at this critical moment” in the war with Russia.

    October 01, 2023
  • With the collapse of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s latest plan to avert a federal shutdown, lawmakers have left town with no endgame in sight.

    September 21, 2023
  • President Joe Biden has nominated a former Obama administration official to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, which has been without a permanent leader for a year and a half. The White House said Thursday that Biden has nominated Michael Whitaker. He's currently the chief operating officer of a Hyundai affiliate that is working to develop an air taxi aircraft. The FAA faces a number of challenges including a shortage of air traffic controllers, aging technology, and alarm over close calls between planes. Whitaker worked at TWA and United Airlines, then was deputy FAA administrator from 2013 to 2016.

    September 07, 2023
  • The White House says Congress should pass a short-term funding measure to ensure the government keeps operating after the current budget year ends Sept. 30. An official with the Office of Management and Budget says lawmakers would very likely need to pass a temporary spending measure in September to prevent a potential partial shutdown. The official wasn't authorized to discuss the administration’s plans and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Without such congressional approval, parts of the federal government could shut down when the new budget year begins Oct. 1. That would jeopardize federal programs on which millions of U.S. households rely.

    August 31, 2023
  • The U.S. military is considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, in what would be an unheard of action aimed at stopping Iran from seizing and harassing civilian vessels. That's what five American officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. If implemented, it would be an extraordinary step by the Pentagon as it grapples with a renewed effort by Iran to harass and seize ships traveling in the strait, through which 20% of all the world’s crude oil passes. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP about the U.S. proposal.

    August 03, 2023
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted rules to require public companies to disclose within four days all cybersecurity breaches that could affect their bottom lines. Delays will be permitted if immediate disclosure poses serious national security or public safety risks. The new rules, passed by a 3-2 vote on Wednesday, also require publicly traded companies to annually disclose information on their cybersecurity risk management and executive expertise in the field.

    July 26, 2023
  • President Joe Biden has nominated former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to lead the Social Security Administration. If confirmed, O'Malley would run one of the biggest social programs in the nation and grapple with the surrounding uncertainty over its funding. Roughly 70 million people — including retirees, disabled people and children — receive Social Security benefits. O’Malley served as Maryland’s governor from 2007 to 2015 and was Baltimore mayor for two terms. O'Malley was a Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 but has ruled out running again. Biden on Wednesday said O’Malley “has spent his career making government more accessible and transparent, while keeping the American people at the heart of his work.”

    July 26, 2023
  • The House has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would give the Federal Aviation Administration more money to hire air traffic controllers. It also aims to address pilot shortages by raising the mandatory retirement age. The measure, passed Thursday, seeks to improve air travel and reauthorize FAA programs for the next five years. Lawmakers in both parties widely supported the bill as they respond to this summer’s wave of cancellations and delays. It passed by a vote of 351-69. The Senate is working on its own version of the legislation. Aviation programs are set to expire Oct. 1 unless Congress approves the measure.

    July 21, 2023
  • The Biden administration and major consumer tech players are launching an effort to put a nationwide cybersecurity certification and labeling program in place. The program announced Tuesday is to help consumers choose smart devices that are less vulnerable to hacking. Officials liken the new U.S. Cyber Trust Mark initiative to the Energy Star program, which rates appliances’ energy efficiency. The initiative will be overseen by the Federal Communications Commission. Industry participation is voluntary. Amazon, Best Buy, Google, LG, Logitech and Samsung are among industry participants. The labels are for products including baby monitors, home security cameras, fitness trackers, TVs and smart climate control systems. The labels could be ready by next year.

    July 18, 2023
  • U.S. officials say state-backed Chinese hackers foiled Microsoft’s cloud-based security and hacked the email of officials at multiple U.S. agencies that deal with China ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing last month. The surgical, targeted espionage accessed the mailboxes of a small number of individuals at an unspecified number of U.S. agencies and was discovered by the State Department. Officials said none of the breached systems were classified. The hack was disclosed late Tuesday by Microsoft, which said email accounts were haced at about 25 organizations globally beginning in mid-May. A U.S. official said the number of U.S. organizations impacted was in the single digits.

    July 12, 2023
  • More than $200 billion may have been stolen from two large COVID-19 relief initiatives. That's according to new estimates from a federal watchdog investigating federally funded programs designed to help small businesses survive the worst public health crisis in more than a hundred years. The numbers issued Tuesday by the U.S. Small Business Administration inspector general are much greater than previous projections issued by the office. They underscore how vulnerable the Paycheck Protection and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs were to fraudsters, particularly during the early stages of the pandemic. The Small Business Administration disputed the new figures, saying the report “contains serious flaws that significantly overestimate fraud.”

    June 27, 2023
  • Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says the development of artificial intelligence is a “moment of revolution” that requires swift action from the government. Schumer said Wednesday that he is working on ambitious bipartisan legislation dealing with AI. Worries about artificial intelligence systems outsmarting humans and running wild have intensified in recent months with the rise of a new generation of highly capable AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. President Joe Biden convened a group of technology leaders in San Francisco to debate what he called the “risks and enormous promises” of artificial intelligence.

    June 21, 2023
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