Politicians often claim to be helping “the poor” with the policies they enact. But people with the resources to take extended time away from their work and spend months in committee hearings are inherently not “representative” of the people of New Mexico. They need to be reminded that most people live “paycheck to paycheck” and struggle to manage an expense from time to time — more so than New Mexico’s 112 legislators and governor.

People of means generally have equity in their homes or can access government-subsidized loans for college. They would not find loans with interest rates in excess of 36 percent to be attractive, but the reality is that most Americans (and an even higher proportion of New Mexicans) lack $400 in accessible savings. Whether facing a car breakdown or another unexpected expense, working people deserve access to quality credit regardless of income or credit history.

Local Spending on Jails Tops $25 Billion in Latest Nationwide Data

Costs increased despite falling crime and fewer people being admitted to jail

Overview

Historically, the roughly 3,000 local jails operating in the United States have received less public and policymaker attention than prisons.1 But now, the COVID-19 pandemic has put jails—secure correctional facilities, generally operated by county or municipal governments, where people are detained before trial or confined post-conviction for periods usually lasting less than a year—under additional scrutiny.2 Jails rely on close confinement and so are high risk for disease transmission.3 Local governments are also confronting the budget implications of the pandemic and looking for potential savings, especially in costly areas such as corrections.4

Read more at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a report that warns of widespread evictions and foreclosures once federal, state, and local pandemic protections come to an end, absent additional public and private action. Over 11 million families are behind on their rent or mortgage payments: 2.1 million families are behind at least three months on mortgage payments, while 8.8 million are behind on rent. Homeowners alone are estimated to owe almost $90 billion in missed payments. The last time this many families were behind on their mortgages was during the Great Recession.

“We have very little time to prevent millions of families from losing their homes to eviction and foreclosure,” warns CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio. “At the CFPB, we are working hard to help homeowners and renters as the U.S. begins to turn a painful crisis, caused by the pandemic, into a robust recovery. We know small landlords are struggling, too, with many dipping into savings or using credit cards to make it through the pandemic. We want everyone—homeowners and renters, landlords, and mortgage servicers—to have the tools they need now to avoid unnecessary evictions and foreclosures.”

UPDATE: Feb. 26, 2021: A Fed spokeswoman Thursday specified the error stemmed from "an automated data center maintenance process that was inadvertently triggered during business hours." Such tasks are normally performed after-hours, she told The Wall Street Journal, adding, "This was human error."

Dive Brief:

The Federal Reserve said an "operational error" caused outages at all 14 of its services Wednesday, including Fedwire Funds and its FedACH system.

"Our technical teams have determined that the cause is a Federal Reserve operational error," the central bank said in a post on its website. The Fed said it became aware of the disruption at 11:15 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday.

President Joe Biden has said he supports $10,000 in student loan forgiveness, but members of his own party, including Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, are pushing him to cancel $50,000 per borrower.

Here’s how those different plans would impact the country’s 42 million student loan borrowers.

It remains uncertain whether student loan forgiveness will happen — and if it does, how much of borrowers’ loans will be canceled.

On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden promised to wipe out at least $10,000 for all borrowers, and more for those who attended public colleges or historically Black colleges and universities.