42 Million Americans Wait As Court Extends SNAP Funding Pause

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

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Caitlin McCabe (0:33)

The Supreme Court extends a pause of food assistance payments as a bill to reopen the government works its way through the House. Plus, the Trump administration explores new rules that would upend shareholder voting.

Alex Frango (0:47)

The proxy firms have become kind of these boogie men for, especially for investors with more of a right-wing sensibility in terms of politics.

Caitlin McCabe (0:56)

And we take a look at whether Harvard is handing out too many A's. It's Wednesday, November 12th. I'm Caitlin McCabe for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM Edition of What's News. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The Supreme Court has said the Trump administration can continue for now to withhold full food assistance benefits for November, extending a temporary order that came from Justice Katanji Brown Jackson last week. The new order will expire just before midnight tomorrow. The House is set to vote as soon as today on a measure to reopen the government, which would then head to President Trump's desk. Once passed, the package would restore programs such as SNAP. In the meantime, the order creates more uncertainty for the 42 million Americans who rely on the SNAP program to feed themselves and their families, as well as for the small businesses that rely on customers who use the benefits. Ryan Sprankle, whose family owns three grocery stores near Pittsburgh, says the number of shoppers has slowed. Historian Katanji Pennsylvania gets 25% of its revenue from SNAP.

SPEAKER_2 (2:09)

We should be slammed right now. But I mean, you can see we're not.

Caitlin McCabe (2:13)

I mean, so sales not being there, you know, affects everybody's wages, affects everybody's hours.

SPEAKER_2 (2:21)

And let's face facts too.

Giulia Petroni (2:23)

The people that should be here buying the product, they're not buying the product.

SPEAKER_2 (2:27)

So they're going without the product. They're going without meals.

Caitlin McCabe (2:31)

Fast moving court rulings have meant that food aid for Americans has been inconsistent across states. At least 16 states paid out SNAP benefits in full after a US district judge ordered the government last week to do so. Others have drawn from state funding to disperse some money or increased aid to food banks, while another group of states has said they're waiting for the matter to be resolved in the courts. Now we're exclusively reporting that the Fannie Mae watchdogs that were fired from their job have been probing if Trump appointee Bill Pulte had improperly obtained mortgage records of key Democratic officials, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. People familiar with the matter say Fannie's Ethics and Investigations Group had received internal complaints alleging that senior officials had improperly directed staff to access the mortgage documents. The investigators were probing who made the orders, whether Pulte had the authority to seek the documents, and whether or not they had followed proper procedure. Since being installed at the top of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is normally a sleepy administration post, Pulte has been investigating alleged mortgage fraud, including against some of Trump's political opponents. Letitia James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California have all been targeted for mortgage fraud investigations and have denied wrongdoing. Responding to a request for comment, a spokesman for the FHFA told us that, quote, the anonymous sources in the story are attempting to obstruct the criminal justice system by completely fabricating and defamatory claims. The spokesman declined to elaborate which claims the statement referred to.

The White House is exploring new measures to curb the influence of proxy advisors and index fund managers, something that has been a pain point for high-profile CEOs, including Elon Musk and Jamie Dimon. We're exclusively reporting that Trump administration officials are discussing at least one executive order that would restrict proxy advisor firms. Journal Finance Editor Alex Frango says that could include a broad ban on shareholder recommendations or in order blocking recommendations on companies that have engaged proxy advisors or consulting work.

Alex Frango (4:47)

There's a broad range of criticisms of the proxy firms, but a couple of the areas tend to do with recommendations that the proxy firms make about corporate governance, meaning how a company is run, things like executive pay, whether a company should have a separate chairman from a CEO, but also things related to diversity on boards, environmental policies. And so the proxy firms have become kind of these boogie men for, especially for investors with more of a right-wing sensibility in terms of politics. And they, for instance, recently Elon Musk at Tesla, there was a vote whether to give him this potential $1 trillion pay package, shareholders had to vote on it. And these companies basically provide a voter guide, a recommendation. And the reason for that is that a lot of shareholders are passive funds, they own lots and lots of stocks, and they don't want to be held liable for voting the wrong way by their own shareholders.