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  • The Avenue

    Food Stamps Respond to the Changing Geography of American Poverty

    Today, the House of Representatives passed a new $1 trillion five-year Farm Bill, by 251 votes to 166. The bill, which is now on its way to the Senate where it is expected to pass, cuts $8.6 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) over the next 10 years—significantly less than House Republicans had previously proposed, but more than Democrats had initially agreed to. The main provision of the bill changes aspects of the SNAP benefit calculation that would affect benefits for roughly 850,000 households, who would see an average decline in monthly benefits of $90 according to the Congressional Budget Office. However, benefit levels for more than 96 percent of the nation’s 48 million SNAP recipients would not be affected under this compromise.

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  • Up Front

    Rethinking Health Care: How Can Texting Help Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

    Darshak Sanghavi and Sara Bencic look at how IBD patients are treated to discuss how physicians can be encouraged to think about innovative and more cost-effective ways of providing care that would improve health care quality while lowering costs.  Read More

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  • Up Front

    2013 SOTU’s Vision For Global Poverty & Progress: How Far Have We Come?

    U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill in Washington

    Despite only a slight nod to development during the State of the Union address, George Ingram reflects on President Obama's commitment to the U.S. global poverty vision and highlights nine components to encourage progress.  Read More

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  • Africa in Focus

    Foresight Africa 2014: It’s Not Just Money That is Needed - Using a Bundled Approach to Increase Productivity in the AU’s Year of Agriculture

    Stephanie Hanson and Laurence Dare discuss ways that African governments, donor countries and non-governmental organizations and the private sector can increase access to farm microfinance and reduce barriers to agricultural productivity.  Read More

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  • Brookings Now

    Top Brookings Policy Ideas on 7 Themes in Obama's #SOTU

    A person dressed up in a Statue of Liberty costume poses for tips in front of a U.S. flag in Times Square in New York, December 30, 2013. (REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)

    In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama expressed his vision for American prosperity and security, as well as specific policy ideas for a "year of action." Below are links to Brookings expert research and commentary on many of the biggest ideas and themes in the speech.  Read More

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  • The Avenue

    Beyond “Shovel-Ready”: Defining a New Range of Infrastructure Jobs after the State of the Union

    U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledges applause before delivering his State of the Union address in front of the U.S. Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, January 28, 2014.

    In his latest State of the Union address, President Obama once again described the importance of investing in our nation’s infrastructure—to fix our crumbling roads and bridges, boost our economic competiveness, and, in particular, create new jobs. With persistent gridlock in Washington, though, we need to be more specific in how we define our pressing infrastructure challenges and promote additional job growth, following the lead of several states and metro areas that have already stepped up with fresh, targeted solutions of their own to get projects done.  Read More

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  • Brown Center Chalkboard

    An Urgent Need for Short-Cycle Clinical Trials in Education

    Teacher in front of class

    Tom Kane points out that district and state leaders lack the infrastructure to learn quickly what’s working and what’s not. In the U.S. education system, which relies on state and local leadership, the lack of infrastructure to evaluate initiatives has hampered past education reform efforts. Kane argues that there is an urgent need for fast-turnaround clinical trials to inform local policy decisions and proposes one framework for doing so. 


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  • Up Front

    Obama’s State of the Union Speech and the Seductiveness of Limited Intervention

    U.S. President Barack Obama smiles as he arrives to deliver his State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill in Washington (REUTERS/Larry Downing).

    The president’s State of the Union address underscored a foreign policy doctrine of surgical, constrained U.S. military engagement combined with building partner capacity, writes Vanda Felbab-Brown. However, the belief that a shoe-string national security policy and quick in-and-out interventions with limited commitment will accomplish U.S. foreign policy goals will in many cases be a dangerous, seductive illusion, she argues.  Read More

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  • FixGov

    SOTU 2014: The Can-Do President?

    State of the Union 2014

    Elaine Kamarck evaluates President Obama's push for executive action in his State of the Union address. What is possible--or impossible--for a President to acheive without Congress? Kamarck considers executive orders, budget appropriations, and issuing regulation as possible avenues for Obama to pursue his agenda.  Read More

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  • Brookings Now

    Affordable Care Act Will Improve Incomes of Americans in Bottom Fifth of Income Distribution

    Chart: The Affordable Care Act Will Improve the Incomes of Americans in the Bottom Two-tenths of the Income Distribution

    The Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") was designed to expand health insurance coverage and hold down the cost of insurance, but it will also change incomes of many Americans, according to initial projections of Brookings Senior Fellows Henry Aaron and Gary Burtless. In their new, preliminary paper "Potential Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Income Inequality," Aaron and Burtless find sizeable income gains in the bottom quarter of the income distribution offset by small losses spread across higher income groups. Their estimates are highly sensitive to the definition of income. They discussed their paper in a recent event, joined by three other economists in a panel discussion.  Read More

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