The U.S. government is phasing out paper checks for most programs. The change starts Tuesday and affects recipients of benefits like Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and tax refunds. Nearly 400,000 Social Security and SSI recipients still rely on paper checks. The director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says many of these people lack access to digital services. President Donald Trump's Republican administration says electronic payments and collections will speed up processing and cut costs. The Social Security Administration says it will continue issuing paper checks if a beneficiary "has no other means to receive payment."

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to resume his downsizing of the federal workforce, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds. The Justice Department on Friday challenged an order issued by a federal judge in San Francisco that temporarily halted Trump's efforts to shrink a federal government he calls bloated. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston's temporary restraining order questioned whether Trump's administration was acting lawfully in trying to trim the federal workforce. The judge directed numerous federal agencies to stop acting on the Republican president's workforce executive order and a memo issued by the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Personnel Management.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from Social Security Administration systems that hold personally identifiable data on millions of Americans. The decision from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander also requires the team to delete any identifiable data they may have. It comes after labor unions and retirees asked for an emergency order limiting DOGE access to the agency and its vast troves of personal data. The administration has said DOGE needs access as they target waste and fraud in the federal government.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After failing to get his citizenship question on the census, President Donald Trump now says his fallback plan will provide …

The U.S. Education Department is rescinding an Obama-era rule that aimed to police ineffective for-profit colleges.