Emily Badger

Take a Ride on New York City’s Future Train Line The Interborough Express, a new rail line that would link Brooklyn and Queens, could change the face of the city.

Today Gov Hochul announced new details on the IBX, a 14-mile light-rail line that will connect Brooklyn and Queens directly. Take a ride on the future line with us! Free link:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

States Have More Data About You Than the Feds Do. Trump Wants to See It.

States know even more about you than the federal government does. The Trump administration is now trying to access that data, too: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/u...

Good news
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/u...

Trump’s War With Powell Throws a Little-Known Planning Board Into Scrutiny

Wild that the National Capital Planning Commission now sits at the center of Trump's campaign to pressure the Fed chair to lower interest rates: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/u...

Where Congress’s Cuts Threaten Access to PBS and NPR The loss of federal funding threatens scores of public TV and radio stations across the United States.

New: I teamed up with @elenashao.bsky.social
and nytgraphics to map more than 100 public TV and radio stations that are at risk of closing as a result of tonight's vote:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

This is a time bomb that will go off in the fall, when the last federal grants run out.

What Work Requirements and Time Limits Could Mean for Federal Housing Assistance Explore how proposed work requirements and time limits could impact millions relying on HUD rental assistance. Learn from past PHA experiences and new research.

And link here to a helpful new Furman Center report on work requirements and time limits in housing assistance: www.localhousingsolutions.org/policy-insig...

As that AP story points out, private landlords who accept vouchers won't like this. For all the program's hassles and paperwork, its major upside for landlords is the stability of long-term reliably paying tenants.

1.4M of the nation's poorest renters risk losing their homes with Trump's proposed HUD time limit A Trump administration proposal could put more than a million low-income households at risk of losing their government-subsidized housing.

The Trump admin would like to put a 2-year time limit on federal housing assistance for the non-elderly or disabled.

70% of such households now in subsidized housing have already been there that long:
apnews.com/article/hud-...

Supreme Court Keeps Ruling in Trump’s Favor, but Doesn’t Say Why

"It was an exercise of power, not reason."

Helpful @adamliptak.bsky.social context on recent SCOTUS moves: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/u...

The Surprising Scientists Hit by Trump’s D.E.I. Cuts

The "DEI" science grants the Trump administration has canceled include some that support young scientists from rural and first-gen college backgrounds: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...

Republicans Want States to Cut Food Aid Errors. Their Bill Could Do the Opposite.

Republicans want states to cut food aid errors. Their bill could do the opposite: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/u...

How the G.O.P. Bill Saves Money: Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork

How the GOP mega-bill bill finds its savings: piling more paperwork on the poor.

w/ @sangerkatz.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/u...

Since Mamdani won the Dem NYC mayor nomination with a free bus proposal, let's talk about free transit.

Research suggests that free transit:
a—increases ridership
b—doesn't get people out of cars
c—benefits youth, elderly & low-income ppl
d—doesn't add employment
e—maybe ups operational efficiency

A treemap of terminated research grants at Harvard

We pored through more than 900 grants worth $2.6 billion that the Trump administration canceled at Harvard.

“This is larger than any individual grant,” a researcher told us. “What we are losing is a future.”

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

With @emmbadger.bsky.social and @ethansinger.bsky.social

Senate Bill Would Make Deep Cuts to Medicaid, Setting Up Fight With House

Rather than softening the Medicaid cuts in Republican's megabill, the Senate has made them even more aggressive: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/u...

The Bureaucrat and the Billionaire: Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Security

Mr. Musk and his allies systematically built a false narrative of widespread fraud at the Social Security Administration based on misinterpreted data: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/u...

Trump’s Big Bill Would Be More Regressive Than Any Major Law in Decades (Gift Article) Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, released Thursday, offer a detailed view into the effects on income groups.

Big tax cut bills typically don't leave the poor worse off. Bills cutting the safety net don't normally include benefits for the rich.

The GOP reconciliation bill is something we haven't really seen before. w/ @aliciaparlap.bsky.social + @sangerkatz.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump and Allies Sell Domestic Policy Bill With Falsehoods

"We are not cutting Medicaid in this package."

"We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful."

"the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years"

These are lies. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/u...

The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.

RFK's "Make America Healthy Again" report cites studies that don't even exist: www.notus.org/health-scien...

Judge Temporarily Blocks White House From Ending Congestion Pricing

The MTA today won a temporary restraining order against the federal government's attempts to shut down congestion pricing. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/n...

NEW: Under Trump, the National Science Foundation is awarding grants at the slowest pace in decades. We took a detailed look at every area of science affected by the funding lag. Here's a gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Plastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

These Are the U.S. Universities Most Dependent on International Students

For all Trump's focus on trade deficits with China, we actually have a big surplus in one area -- selling U.S. higher education to foreign students.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/u...

yes!

Easily one of my favorite stories we've ever worked on.

Have you ever... not gotten around to opening your mail for a week or two? That's the kind of thing that will get a low-income family kicked off benefits. The GOP reconciliation bill would ramp up such hurdles.

A Complete List of Everything in the Republican Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save We highlighted the substantive changes made by House Republicans to secure the support of several holdout members.

Here's a complete list of *everything* in the GOP megabill, thanks to heroic efforts from @aliciaparlap.bsky.social @emmbadger.bsky.social and Josh Katz. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A Complete List of Everything in the Republican Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save (Gift Article) We highlighted the substantive changes made by House Republicans to secure the support of several holdout members.

You can see more of the details on exactly what’s in the bill the House just passed here in this extremely long table we’ve compiled at the Upshot:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Together, these provisions serve the purpose of pushing more of the cost of SNAP onto states. And when states cannot afford that, benefits will be cut.

But there’s plausible deniability for Congress baked into federalism: it’ll appear to be the states cutting these benefits, not them.

This one changes how error rates are calculated, and will have the effect of making these numbers higher everywhere.

Currently, when states make small under- or overpayments – today <$57 — those errors are excluded from their error rate. The new GOP bill says *any error above $0* will be counted.

In 2023 data, Alaksa had an error rate of 60 percent.
New Jersey: 35 percent
South Carolina: 23 percent

fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/defaul...

But there’s also another provision in the bill…