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SBA Commends U.S. Department of War's Suspension of CMMC Phase II for Small Defense Contractors
WASHINGTON, July 14 -- The Small Business Administration issued the following news release on July 13, 2026:
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SBA Commends U.S. Department of War's Suspension of CMMC Phase II for Small Defense Contractors
Modernization of Key Cyber Framework Will Grow Defense Industrial Base and Arsenal of Freedom
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Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) commended the U.S. Department of War (DoW) for suspending its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program Phase II requirements, which were originally scheduled to go into effect on November 10, 2026. The suspension follows
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WASHINGTON, July 14 -- The Small Business Administration issued the following news release on July 13, 2026:
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SBA Commends U.S. Department of War's Suspension of CMMC Phase II for Small Defense Contractors
Modernization of Key Cyber Framework Will Grow Defense Industrial Base and Arsenal of Freedom
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Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) commended the U.S. Department of War (DoW) for suspending its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program Phase II requirements, which were originally scheduled to go into effect on November 10, 2026. The suspension followsmonths of engagement between the DoW, SBA, and small business stakeholders, who warned that the current CMMC framework imposes costly bureaucratic burdens on the small contractors that are essential to growing the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB). These pressures caused many firms to leave or consider leaving defense-related work, prompting the DoW to launch a comprehensive review to recalibrate the CMMC program so it preserves strong cybersecurity while eliminating regulatory barriers that impede the Department's Acquisition Transformation System (ATS) to rapidly expand defense supply chains.
"Let there be no doubt: the small businesses that undergird our defense industrial base are committed to protecting our nation's digital domain -- but cybersecurity cannot come at the cost of bureaucracy that shuts out the very companies our warfighters depend on," said SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler. "Working closely with the Department of War, the Trump SBA has heard directly from mission critical small businesses that CMMC compliance was becoming an untenable barrier pushing them out of the Defense Industrial Base, even though these firms are the backbone of national security. With over 100,000 small businesses impacted and compliance costs approaching as much as $600,000, the SBA strongly supports the Department of War's decisive action to preserve strong cybersecurity while cutting red tape, bringing American innovators into our defense supply chain, and advancing the DoW's efforts to rapidly expand modern capabilities essential to warfighter readiness."
The suspension is a key step in advancing the ATS, which prioritizes "speed to capability" by replacing burdensome compliance regimes with scalable, resilient cybersecurity measures. By suspending the Phase II requirements and initiating a comprehensive review, the Department is working with SBA and other partners to ensure cybersecurity requirements protect federal data without driving innovative small firms out of the Defense Industrial Base or slowing the delivery of critical capabilities to the warfighter.
CMMC is a top concern among small businesses across the DIB, which seek a framework that preserves cybersecurity while easing costly burdens that prevent many qualified small firms from competing for DoW contracts. Established through a final rule published during the Biden Administration in 2024, the CMMC program was designed to protect Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and Federal Contract Information (FCI) through three tiers of cybersecurity requirements and certification.
Under the current rule, Phase II requires many small contractors to complete either a self-assessment or a third-party assessment, depending on contract requirements. SBA analysis estimates that total compliance costs can reach approximately $593,800 per CMMC certification for small firms requiring third party assessment, and about $388,600 for firms eligible for self assessment.
If implemented on its planned launch date, CMMC Phase II would have required more than 120,000 DIB small businesses to seek compliance through a cost-prohibitive system supported by only about 100 approved assessors. Rushing the certification process would have increased assessment costs, delayed certification, and locked otherwise qualified suppliers out of the defense contracting process, threatening our national security. For small manufacturers and other defense suppliers, those delays mean lost revenue, reduced competition, and greater strain on critical supply chains.
SBA hears consistently from small manufacturers that CMMC is among the most burdensome regulatory issues they face. Through its nationwide manufacturing tour and the SBA Red Tape Hotline, the agency has engaged with DoW and other federal partners since last year to identify ways to reduce unnecessary compliance costs while preserving strong cybersecurity protections.
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About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of entrepreneurship. As the leading voice for small businesses within the federal government, the SBA empowers job creators with the resources and support they need to start, grow, and expand their businesses or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
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Original text here: https://www.sba.gov/article/2026/07/13/sba-commends-us-department-wars-suspension-cmmc-phase-ii-small-defense-contractors
Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio Reached $2.97 Trillion in June
WASHINGTON, July 14 -- Ginnie Mae issued the following news release:
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Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio Reached $2.97 Trillion in June
Ginnie Mae's mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio outstanding grew to $2.97 trillion as of June 2026. In addition, Ginnie Mae issued $53.9 billion in total MBS, resulting in net portfolio growth of $20.6 billion. Ginnie Mae facilitated the pooling and securitization of 339,562 first-time homebuyer loans year to date.
Key highlights from the June issuance include:
* $52.4 billion in Ginnie Mae II MBS.
* $1.5 billion in Ginnie Mae I
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 14 -- Ginnie Mae issued the following news release:
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Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio Reached $2.97 Trillion in June
Ginnie Mae's mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio outstanding grew to $2.97 trillion as of June 2026. In addition, Ginnie Mae issued $53.9 billion in total MBS, resulting in net portfolio growth of $20.6 billion. Ginnie Mae facilitated the pooling and securitization of 339,562 first-time homebuyer loans year to date.
Key highlights from the June issuance include:
* $52.4 billion in Ginnie Mae II MBS.
* $1.5 billion in Ginnie Mae IMBS, including $1.3 billion for multifamily housing loans.
* The pooling and securitization of loans for more than 157,000 American The pooling and securitization of loans for more than 157,000 American households, including more than 68,000 first-time homebuyers.
For detailed information on monthly MBS issuance, unpaid principal balance, Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC) issuance, and a broader analysis of global market trends, visit Ginnie Mae Disclosure (https://www.ginniemae.gov/data_and_reports/reporting/Pages/monthly_issuance_reports.aspx).
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About Ginnie Mae
Ginnie Mae is a wholly government-owned corporation that attracts global capital into the housing finance system to support homeownership for veterans and millions of homeowners throughout the country. Ginnie Mae MBS programs directly support housing finance programs administered by the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Public and Indian Housing, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service. Ginnie Mae is the only MBS to carry the explicit full faith and credit of the U.S. Government. Additional information about Ginnie Mae is available at www.ginniemae.gov and on X, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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Original text here: https://www.ginniemae.gov/newsroom/press-release/ginnie-mae-mortgage-backed-securities-portfolio-reached-297-trillion-june
Postal Service IG: Michigan 1 District: Delivery Operations
WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The U.S. Postal Service Inspector General issued the following audit report (No. 26-087-R26) on July 9, 2026 entitled "Michigan 1 District: Delivery Operations."
Here are excerpts:
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During the week of May 5, 2026, we performed a self-initiated audit at the Detroit Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC), and three delivery units serviced by the P&DC. The delivery units included Grand Shelby Carrier Annex, Gratiot Station, and Strathmoor Station Detroit, MI.
We issued individual reports for the three delivery units and one report for the P&DC. We will
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WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The U.S. Postal Service Inspector General issued the following audit report (No. 26-087-R26) on July 9, 2026 entitled "Michigan 1 District: Delivery Operations."
Here are excerpts:
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During the week of May 5, 2026, we performed a self-initiated audit at the Detroit Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC), and three delivery units serviced by the P&DC. The delivery units included Grand Shelby Carrier Annex, Gratiot Station, and Strathmoor Station Detroit, MI.
We issued individual reports for the three delivery units and one report for the P&DC. We willalso issue another report summarizing the results of our audits at all three delivery units with specific recommendations for management to address.
The audit team identified deficiencies in five areas we reviewed affecting mail delivery and property conditions at the three delivery units.
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View the original text at: https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports/audit-reports/michigan-1-district-delivery-operations
Letters of Credit Enable Housing Investments in Underserved Communities
CHICAGO, Illinois, July 13 -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, a district bank in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, posted the following news:
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Letters of Credit Enable Housing Investments in Underserved Communities
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Albank in Chicago has served low- and moderate-income neighborhoods since 1953, and through FHLBank Chicago's letters of credit, has expanded its capacity to finance housing and economic development. By securing municipal deposits, letters of credit have helped Albank to grow deposit relationships and lending capacity-making it possible to fund projects that might
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CHICAGO, Illinois, July 13 -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, a district bank in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, posted the following news:
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Letters of Credit Enable Housing Investments in Underserved Communities
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Albank in Chicago has served low- and moderate-income neighborhoods since 1953, and through FHLBank Chicago's letters of credit, has expanded its capacity to finance housing and economic development. By securing municipal deposits, letters of credit have helped Albank to grow deposit relationships and lending capacity-making it possible to fund projects that mightotherwise be difficult to finance.
In 2025, Albank refinanced the rehabilitation of a 56-unit apartment building in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, owned by 7301 N. Ridge LLC and managed by Hunter Properties, Inc. Ownership invested over $700,000 in major systems improvements, including a new boiler, windows, new electrical service, masonry work, updated apartments, and parking lot renovations. The project maintained incomequalified rents, allowing the building to qualify for the Cook County Assessor's Office's Housing Special Assessment Program-which provides a property tax reduction for buildings that invest in major improvements.
"We take great satisfaction in providing quality naturally occurring affordable housing," said David Rees, Manager of 7301 N. Ridge LLC, the developer. "This project allowed us to preserve affordable housing for the neighborhood while making much needed improvements and ensuring long-term viability."
For Albank, letters of credit have become integral to their business model. "They're simple and expand the types of investments we can make in low- and moderate-income communities," said Adam Steinback, Albank President. "By securing municipal deposits, we can do more lending in the communities that need it most-supporting housing projects and local economic growth."
Through its partnership with FHLBank Chicago, Albank continues to use letters of credit to strengthen municipalities, including the City of Chicago, to deliver meaningful impact across the communities it serves.
Read more in our 2025 Impact Report.
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Original text here: https://www.fhlbc.com/news/news-detail/2026/07/13/letters-of-credit-enable-housing-investments-in-underserved-communities
Inter-American Development Bank: 'Total Factor Productivity Growth in Brazilian Agriculture (1985-2017): The Roles of Climate Change and Public Policy'
WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper in July 2026 entitled "Total Factor Productivity Growth in Brazilian Agriculture (1985-2017): The Roles of Climate Change and Public Policy."
Here are excerpts:
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Introduction
Studying agricultural productivity growth in Brazil is of considerable importance for both Brazil and the international community. Brazil is among the top four agricultural producers and exporters in the world (FAO, 2021) and continued growth of its production--largely driven by productivity growth--can have a significant
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WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper in July 2026 entitled "Total Factor Productivity Growth in Brazilian Agriculture (1985-2017): The Roles of Climate Change and Public Policy."
Here are excerpts:
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Introduction
Studying agricultural productivity growth in Brazil is of considerable importance for both Brazil and the international community. Brazil is among the top four agricultural producers and exporters in the world (FAO, 2021) and continued growth of its production--largely driven by productivity growth--can have a significantimpact on domestic and international food security. Generating income for a large share of agricultural producers, and contributing to maintaining food prices low, are also essential elements of a poverty reduction strategy for the country. Another important role for the agricultural sector relates to the generation of foreign exchange, which can be critical for economic development.
In the first two decades of the twenty first century, agrifood exports in Brazil rose from 23% to 37% of total exports, thus underscoring the sector's relevance. The agricultural sector was also responsible for over 40% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) around 2021--due to deforestation of the Amazon, extensive cattle production, fertilizer use, and other sources--bestowing upon it a potentially important role in the fight against global warming.1 Recognizing the agricultural sector's broad economic, social and environmental importance, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the determinants of agricultural productivity growth in Brazil.
Among the determinants that we prioritize, we seek to understand the extent to which climate change presents an obstacle to growth and to identify the policy levers, including education and agricultural R&D, that can contribute to a sustained high rate of productivity growth.
Research on TFP growth in Brazilian agriculture is rich in some ways and lacking in others. There are many papers on TFP growth at the national level since the 1970s. Gasques and co-authors, for example, have produced numerous studies that estimate TFP growth for Brazil and its states using a Tornqvist index number approach. Few studies, however, utilize econometric techniques with rich panel data that permit going beneath the state level and estimating inefficiency. One example is Rada et al. (2019) who estimated TFP growth with municipal data for different farm size groups, but their study ends in 2006. Another is Spolador and Danelon (2024) who used microregional data for the period 1996-2017, but only focused on crop output. We seek to fill this gap by providing a novel analysis of TFP growth based on municipal data from over 30 years.
Relative to previous econometric studies, we include all of agricultural output, use highly disaggregated data, and cover a longer period. The extended time frame is especially important for studying the effects of climate change.
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View full text here: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Total-Factor-Productivity-Growth-in-Brazilian-Agriculture-1985-2017--The-Roles-of-Climate-Change-and-Public-Policy.pdf
[Category: IADB]
Inter-American Development Bank: 'The Unmeasured Cost of Fiscal Execution: Payment Timing and Public Service Delivery'
WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper in June 2026 entitled "The Unmeasured Cost of Fiscal Execution: Payment Timing and Public Service Delivery."
Here are excerpts:
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Introduction
When governments consolidate under fiscal stress, what is the real cost of adjusting through the timing of payments rather than through explicit spending cuts? Standard fiscal analysis typically tracks appropriations, obligations, deficits, and realized expenditures. Yet in many public financial management systems, the authorization of spending
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The Inter-American Development Bank issued the following white paper in June 2026 entitled "The Unmeasured Cost of Fiscal Execution: Payment Timing and Public Service Delivery."
Here are excerpts:
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Introduction
When governments consolidate under fiscal stress, what is the real cost of adjusting through the timing of payments rather than through explicit spending cuts? Standard fiscal analysis typically tracks appropriations, obligations, deficits, and realized expenditures. Yet in many public financial management systems, the authorization of spendingand the release of cash are institutionally distinct and do not necessarily occur contemporaneously. When liquidity becomes scarce, governments can preserve formal appropriations while slowing the conversion of legally incurred obligations into cash payments. In other words, they can use the timing of payment execution as an adjustment margin within the fiscal plumbing that turns authorized obligations into paid inputs.
This paper examines that margin. The execution wedge -- the gap between legally incurred obligations and actual cash payments -- is the object of measurement; its deliberate management under liquidity stress, which we call execution wedge manipulation, is the phenomenon under study. This wedge
matters because public production of goods and services depends not only on what governments authorize or legally obligate, but on what they pay reliably and on time. If fiscal adjustment operates partly through managing the wedge, standard expenditure aggregates may mismeasure the resources effectively available for public production and neglect an important channel through which fiscal policy, when under liquidity stress, reaches frontline services. Directing attention to this institutional practice shifts the locus of fiscal policy from what formal rules indicate the budget should do to what it does, emphasizing that liquidity management and payment timing are neglected yet salient margins of fiscal adjustment.
To discipline measurement and interpretation, we develop a simple conceptual framework in which a government facing a fiscal gap chooses between two adjustment margins. A government facing a fiscal gap can reduce appropriations explicitly, or it can preserve formal budgets while slowing the conversion of obligations into cash payments. The second margin is less visible in standard fiscal aggregates, but it can matter for public production. When service-delivery units cannot self-finance and services must be produced in real time, payment delays can constrain usable inputs during the production window, and later settlement of the obligation may not fully recover the foregone service episode. This compression falls disproportionately on flexible operating inputs -- personnel wages are institutionally and legally difficult to reduce at short notice in most public sector settings, so cash shortfalls concentrate on the residual non-wage margin. The framework delivers three empirical implications that organize the analysis below: an increase in the execution wedge should reduce public output; it should operate through compression of timely operating payments rather than through formal appropriations alone; and patient outcomes should deteriorate most along margins that depend on sustained input availability during the service episode.
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View full text here: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/The-Unmeasured-Cost-of-Fiscal-Execution-Payment-Timing-and-Public-Service-Delivery.pdf
[Category: IADB]
EPA IG: Evaluation of Oversight of Ohio's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-E-0040) on July 7, 2026 entitled "Evaluation of the EPA's Oversight of Ohio's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We initiated this evaluation to determine whether the EPA's oversight verifies that Ohio's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permitting program implements federal regulatory requirements related to nutrient management
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 13 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-E-0040) on July 7, 2026 entitled "Evaluation of the EPA's Oversight of Ohio's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permitting Program for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We initiated this evaluation to determine whether the EPA's oversight verifies that Ohio's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permitting program implements federal regulatory requirements related to nutrient managementplans for concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.
Summary of Findings
The EPA conducts oversight of the Ohio EPA's NPDES permitting program for CAFOs in accordance with its responsibilities under the Clean Water Act. We conclude that the EPA's oversight provides reasonable assurance that Ohio's program verifies that nutrient management plans for CAFOs include the nine minimum requirements under 40 C.F.R. Sec.122.42(e)(1)(i)-(ix), and we make no recommendations as a result of this evaluation.
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The report is posted at: https://www.epa.gov/office-inspector-general/report-evaluation-epas-oversight-ohios-national-pollutant-discharge
