A rollback in social policy and environmental proposals, a drop in initial jobless claims, and calls for more stringent fraud reviews after the arrest of a Connecticut lawmaker are among the top business news items this morning.
National
President Joe Biden is backing a rollback of several proposals in a large-scale social policy and environmental bill in an effort to win support from centrist Democrats in the closely divided Senate. Cutbacks include the elimination of two free years of community college and a clean electricity program as well as limits on the extension of child tax credit payments and the length of federal paid leave.
Initial jobless claims again fell last week, dropping 6,000 to 290,000. Continuing claims for the week prior decreased to a new pandemic low of 2.48 million, while 2.8 million people overall were on some sort of state or federal benefits program.
Connecticut
Republican legislators in Connecticut are calling for greater oversight of the federal COVID-19 relief funds Connecticut received after a Democratic colleague, State Rep. Michael DiMassa, was charged with fraudulent use of these funds. DiMassa is accused of establishing a company that received $636,783 for services that were never provided.
