Business News follows the organizations paid to deliver public services: contractors, nonprofits, consultancies and technology vendors. Coverage includes award values, performance clauses, subcontracting, penalties and renewal decisions. Aimed at procurement officers, provider executives, auditors and readers tracing where program budgets eventually end up.
Vendors and nonprofits running public services: contract awards, performance penalties, subcontracting chains and margins earned on program delivery.
The federal government doesn't lend small businesses money directly — it guarantees part of the loan a bank makes. Here's how that guarantee works, and how a July 2026 rule change raised how much a business can borrow.
Henrik LarsenThe Thrift Savings Plan added in-plan Roth conversions in January 2026, raised the elective deferral limit to $24,500, and now requires high earners to make all catch-up contributions as Roth under SECURE 2.0.
Henrik LarsenTwo actions define the agency's recent record: a streamlined exemption process for automated vehicles that produced the first-ever demonstration exemption in August 2025, and a December 2025 proposal to reset fuel economy standards for model years 2022 through 2031.
Henrik LarsenFees for SBA's 7(a) and 504 loan programs were restructured for the federal fiscal year that began October 1, 2025, with the agency waiving upfront guarantee fees for qualifying small manufacturers through September 30, 2026.
Henrik LarsenChanges the Interior Department announced for January 1, 2026 kept the annual park pass at $80 for U.S. residents while raising it to $250 for nonresidents, added a $100 per-person surcharge at certain parks, and limited fee-free days.
Henrik LarsenFirst-Class stamps stay at 78 cents after USPS skipped a January 2026 increase, but the agency has kept consolidating its processing network and expanded revised service standards for mail moving long distances.
Henrik LarsenSince April 14, 2025, people who cannot verify their identity through a personal my Social Security account for certain services must prove who they are in person at a field office, under rules the agency announced in March 2025.
Henrik LarsenThe Census Bureau's 2026 Census Test, the first major on-the-ground trial for the 2030 count, was scaled back from six planned locations to limited operations in two, a change that advocacy groups have criticized.
Henrik LarsenTen months after HHS and FDA announced a national push to end petroleum-based synthetic dyes in the food supply, food manufacturers have until January 2027 to comply and drugmakers until January 2028.
Henrik LarsenThe fee schedule that took effect in January 2025 raised patent fees about 7.5 percent and adjusted 28 trademark fees, and the agency has posted additional petition-fee changes for August 14, 2026.
Henrik Larsen