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NOVEMBER 20, 2025 |
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Harvard Kennedy School | | | |
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Customers shop for produce at an H-E-B grocery store on February 12, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) | | |
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Social policy |
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What cuts to SNAP mean for people and the economy |
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With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called Food Stamps) is undergoing significant cuts. SNAP benefits were also at risk in the recent government shutdown—the first time in which a shutdown threatened this 60-year program that supports more than 42 million Americans. In a written Q&A and video, Professor Sara Bleich explains what SNAP does and what funding changes may mean for recipients and local economies. Bleich served in the Biden administration as the director of nutrition security and health equity at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service and holds faculty appointments at HKS, as well as the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Learn more about Social Policy at HKS » | | |
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Democracy & Governance |
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Understanding the Insurrection Act |
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The Insurrection Act, first enacted in 1807, allows the president to deploy the United States military and federalize National Guard units in states, and President Donald Trump has suggested invoking it to quell unrest in American cities. HKS Senior Lecturer Juliette Kayyem explains the act’s history and use. “The Insurrection Act is authorized by the insurrection provision of the Constitution, which basically says the president can call forth the militia in an insurrection. But insurrection is not defined,” Kayyem says. “Since its inception, fifteen presidents have used it. In modern times, presidents used it during the civil rights era when governors in some states were ignoring the Supreme Court rulings on desegregation. It was used again in 1992 to quell riots following the Rodney King verdict, at the request of California Governor Pete Wilson.”
See also: Professor Sandra Susan Smith analyzes Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in U.S. cities and explains what strategies policymakers could use to reduce crime effectively in a new video.
Learn more about Democracy & Governance at HKS » | | |
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Politics |
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What Mamdani and Trump have in common: They both have appealed to young voters |
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In an Institute of Politics focus group in October, young voters in New York City talked about their voting preferences and the issues that concern them, such as economic struggles, transportation, and housing. Not only did these concerns cut across partisan preferences, but the participants said that President Trump and Zohran Mamdani—who was elected mayor not long after the event—share a popular appeal that establishment politicians lack. One voter said, “They are both populists on an anti-establishment line. I am purely an anti-establishment Republican, and I will vote for an anti-establishment Democrat or a Democratic Socialist before I support an establishment plan anywhere else, even it is Republican.” IOP Director Setti Warren and John Della Volpe, the IOP’s director of polling, spoke with 16 undergraduates for this “Spotlight: Voices Across America” event.
Learn more about Politics at HKS » | | |
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What we're Reading |
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Venezuelan activists discussed human rights in their country in a recent John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. | | |
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Education, training & labor |
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How non-promotable tasks stall women’s careers |
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HKS Women and Public Policy Program fellow and University of Pittsburgh economist Lise Vesterlund explains her research on “non-promotable tasks”: work assignments that she says “benefit the organization but don’t help the individual performing them advance.” Vesterlund explains that duties like onboarding new employees or planning team parties are essential but “are often invisible, are not directly linked to the organization’s currency, and don’t showcase your specialized skills.” She says, “Across industries, we see that women, especially women of color, spend significantly more time on these kinds of tasks. … That’s time not spent on high-visibility, promotable activities.” To correct this imbalance, Vesterland says organizations should be more deliberate in how they allocate work.
Learn more about Education, Training & Labor at HKS » | | |
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