A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to reinstate more than 1,300 U.S. Department of Education employees.

“The Department must be able to carry out its functions and its obligations,” as well as “other relevant statutes as mandated by Congress,” U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston wrote in the injunction.

The U.S. Department of Education announced a reduction in force on March 11 that would have gutted the agency’s staff by a half.

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In a vote early Thursday, House members approved President Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful” tax bill, including a new savings account for children with a one-time deposit of $1,000 from the federal government.

Under the proposal, “Trump Accounts” — previously known as “Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement” or “MAGA Accounts” — can later be used for education expenses or credentials, the down payment on a first home or as capital to start a small business.  

The final version of the bill that House Republicans passed Thursday could still face pushback in the Senate.

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If the bill passes as drafted, parents will be able to contribute up to $5,000 a year and the balance will be invested in a diversified fund that tracks a U.S.-stock index.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who spearheaded the effort, said the accounts give children “the miracle of the compound growth, the ability to accumulate wealth, which is transformational.”

Not unlike a 529 college savings plan, the Trump Account has a tax incentive to getting a jump start on saving. Earnings grow tax-deferred, and qualified withdrawals are taxed at the long-term capital-gains rate.

“This isn’t all that different from the tax treatment you would get from a typical brokerage account,” said Sam Taube, NerdWallet’s lead investing writer.

Other similar options already exist. Custodial brokerage accounts — often called a UTMA (Uniform Transfers to Minors Act) or UGMA (Uniform Gift to Minors Act) account — also allow parents to transfer bank deposits, stocks, bonds and mutual funds to minors. But in that case, investment income, including dividends and interest, could be subject to a “kiddie tax” charged to the parents at their rate.

With 529 accounts, alternatively, earnings grow on a tax-advantaged basis, and when a child withdraws the money, it is tax-free if the funds are used for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, fees, books, and room and board.

Although there are more limitations on what 529 funds can be applied to compared to Trump Accounts, restrictions have loosened in recent years to include continuing education classes, apprenticeship programs and student loan payments.

Plus, 529 accounts have much higher contribution limits. This year, individuals can gift up to $19,000, or up to $38,000 if you’re married and file taxes jointly, per child.

“For most parents, like myself with teens, the 529 college savings plan is superior if you’re focused on paying for higher education because of the federal tax-free growth,” said Winnie Sun, co-founder and managing director of Sun Group Wealth Partners, based in Irvine, California.

“Also, now, the 529 is becoming more flexible with its’ ability to have unused funds rolled into a Roth IRA in the future for retirement,” said Sun, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council. 

As of 2024, families can roll over unused 529 funds to the account beneficiary’s Roth individual retirement account, without triggering income taxes or penalties, so long as they meet certain requirements.

Experts say the biggest benefit of Trump Accounts is the seed money for all children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 1, 2029, funded by the Department of the Treasury. There are no income requirements and everyone is eligible, as long as the child is a U.S. citizen, and both parents have Social Security numbers.

Although some states, including Connecticut and Colorado, already offer a type of “baby bonds” program for parents, the Trump Accounts — along with a bigger child tax credit proposed in the budget bill — “could certainly help a lot of families at a lot of different income levels,” said NerdWallet’s Taube.

Further, these accounts are not mutually exclusive from other tax-advantaged accounts, like 529 plans, he added, “so parents could take advantage of both.”

Still, for parents weighing their options for early investment vehicles, “my recommendation would be, if you’re focused on college savings, talk to an advisor and start with the 529 plan first,” Sun said. 

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As Republicans push forward with the “big, beautiful” tax bill, federal food assistance may see big cuts.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, may be cut about 30% under the terms of the bill, which would be the “biggest cut in the program’s history,” according to Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, currently provides food assistance to more than 40 million individuals including children, seniors and adults with disabilities.

Yet cuts to the program proposed by the House — which would shrink the program’s funding by about $300 billion through 2034 — would put those benefits at risk.

“The House Republican plan would take away food assistance for millions who struggle to afford the high cost of groceries, including families with children and other vulnerable people with low incomes,” Cox said during a Tuesday webinar hosted by the CBPP, a progressive think tank.

The SNAP reform efforts come amid a broader effort to reduce waste and fraud in government programs. SNAP, like other government benefits, can be susceptible to improper or fraudulent payments.

The “one big, beautiful bill restores integrity to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., said in a May 14 statement, through “long-overdue accountability incentives to control costs and end executive and state overreach.”

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Many Americans cite high food costs as a top economic concern, according to an April Pew Research Center survey. If new tariff policies are put into effect, that could prompt food prices to go higher.

Moreover, the proposed SNAP cuts come as some experts say the U.S. is facing higher recession risks. In previous downturns, every additional dollar spent on SNAP generates about $1.54 in returns to the economy, according to Elaine Waxman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s tax and income support division.

“People spend SNAP dollars right away, and they spend them locally,” Waxman said.

The proposed SNAP cuts would largely happen by expanding work requirements to qualify for benefits and by cutting federal funding for food benefits and administration and leaving it up to states to make up the difference.

The largest cut to SNAP would come from federal funding cuts to basic SNAP benefits ranging from 5% to 25% starting in 2028, according to CBPP.

It would then be up to states to find ways to make up for that benefit shortfall, which could include making it more difficult to enroll in the program or finding other localized cuts to the program, according to CBPP.

“The change in the bill that is most dramatic is asking states to share part of the benefit cost,” Waxman said. “That’s new; since SNAP was originated, the federal government has always paid the full cost of the benefits.”

Notably, it would also mark the first time in the history of SNAP that the federal government would no longer ensure children in every state have access to food benefits, according to CBPP.

In addition, the proposal also seeks to make it so states pay a larger portion of the program’s administrative costs.

How states may react to the changes may vary. In worst-case scenarios, some states could even opt out of the program altogether, according to CBPP.

However, Waxman said most states will likely try to protect benefits because they’re “so critical,” even though they are not legally obligated to offer the program.

“The vast majority, if not all, will try to do something,” Waxman said.

In addition to the benefits SNAP provides to individuals and families, it also provides an “integral” part of economies, Waxman said. In lower-income rural areas, for example, rural grocery stores that rely on SNAP customers would see food spending go down.

“It has all these ripples that will hurt a lot of people other than just the people who are on the program,” Waxman said.

Expanded work requirements would affect 2.7 million families and 5.4 million individuals, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.

That includes 1.5 million families who would lose benefits entirely and 1.2 million families who would receive lower benefits. It also includes 1.8 million people, including 48,000 children, who would lose benefits entirely; and 3.6 million people, including 1.5 million children, who would receive lower benefits, according to the Urban Institute.

Families that lose some or all their benefits would lose $254 per month on average, according to the research. Meanwhile, families with children would lose $229 per month on average, the Urban Institute found.