ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker at Morehouse College in Georgia, giving the Democrat a key election-year spotlight on one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black campuses as he works to shore up the racially diverse coalition that propelled him to the Oval Office.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed Biden will speak at the alma mater of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The May 19 speech will mark the second consecutive spring that Biden has spoken to the graduating class of a historically Black school. In 2023, the president delivered the commencement address at Howard University. The Washington, D.C., school is the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris, the first nonwhite woman to hold that office. Morehouse, a private all-male school that is part of the multi-campus Atlanta University Center, also is the alma mater of Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator.

Polls have suggested Biden and Harris have work to do generate the same levels of Black support they won in 2020, especially among younger voters. It would not take a significant drop in Black turnout for Biden to yield several states to former President Donald Trump in their rematch.

Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes over Trump out of about 5 million ballots cast. The combined enrollment at Morehouse and its adjoining schools that make up the Atlanta University Center is about 9,000 students. Biden’s margin in Wisconsin, where Black voters in greater Milwaukee are an anchor of Democrats’ statewide vote totals, was less than 21,000 votes. The president had more comfortable margins in Michigan and Pennsylvania, but still cannot afford to lose Black support across the metro areas of Detroit and Philadelphia.

Among states Trump won, Biden is targeting North Carolina, which has a notable Black college student population. Trump’s margin in the state was about 75,000 votes.

The administration and reelection campaign have targeted HBCUs since Biden took office in January 2021. Harris and Cabinet members have spoken on several campuses. Among other policy achievements and priorities, they have touted increases in federal money support for HBCUs; Biden’s efforts to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan burden per borrower and increase Pell Grants for low-income students; energy investments to combat the climate crisis, and Democrats’ support for abortion rights and decriminalizing marijuana possession.

Reflecting the nation’s overall racial gaps in income and net worth, Black college students are disproportionately dependent on Pell Grants, which typically cover only a fraction of overall college costs, and student loans. According to Federal Reserve data, about 1 out of 3 Black households has student loan debt, compared to about 1 in 5 white households. The average Black borrower also is carrying about $10,000 more in debt than the average white borrower. Additionally, federal statistics show about 60% of Black undergraduates receive Pell Grants, compared to about 40% of the overall undergraduate population and a third of white students.

Most historically Black colleges and universities, both state-affiliated and private, were founded in the years after the end of the Civil War and ratification of the 13th Amendment that ended chattel slavery. Most established white campuses in that post-war era, especially in the Old Confederacy, denied admission to Black applicants altogether or, in the case of many northern schools, admitted only a few Black students.

Morehouse was founded in 1867, and Spelman College, its adjacent private all-women’s school, was founded in 1881. The University of Georgia, the state’s flagship public university, meanwhile, was chartered in 1785. That was more than three years before the U.S. Constitution was ratified, but UGA did not serve Black students until Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter were enrolled under a federal court order in 1961.

Biden’s undergraduate alma mater, the University of Delaware, traces its roots to 1743, and its modern iteration began classes in 1867. The university did not integrate to include any Black students until 1948, when the 81-year-old president was 6 years old.

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Kim reported from Washington.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota state senator and former broadcast meteorologist told police that she broke into her stepmother’s home because her stepmother refused to give her items of sentimental value from her late father, including his ashes, according to burglary charges filed Tuesday.

Democratic Sen. Nicole Mitchell, 49, of Woodbury, was arrested early Monday at the home in the northwestern Minnesota city of Detroit Lakes. The arresting officer wrote in the complaint that he heard Mitchell tell her stepmother “something to the effect of, ’I was just trying to get a couple of my dad’s things because you wouldn’t talk to me anymore.'”

Mitchell was dressed all in black and wearing a black hat, the complaint said. The officer said he discovered a flashlight near her that was covered with a black sock, apparently modified to control the amount of light coming from it.

The complaint, filed in Becker County District Court in Detroit Lakes, charges Mitchell with one count of first-degree burglary, a felony. She remained jailed ahead of her first court appearance Tuesday. Court records do not list an attorney who could comment on her behalf, but show that she applied for a public defender. She did not return a call left on the jail’s voicemail system for inmates.

“I know I did something bad,” the complaint quoted Mitchell as saying after she was told of her right to remain silent.

Mitchell’s father, Rod Mitchell, died last month, according to an obituary posted by a Detroit Lakes funeral home. He had been married to Mitchell’s stepmother for 40 years, it said.

Nicole Mitchell told the officer she was after pictures, a flannel shirt, ashes and other items, but that her stepmother had ceased all contact with her and that they weren’t speaking, the complaint said. But it was the ashes that got her “to this stage,” it said.

The senator acknowledged that she had entered the house through a basement window that had been propped open with a black backpack, the complaint said. Officers found her Minnesota Senate ID inside it, along with her driver’s license, two laptop computers, a cellphone and Tupperware containers, the complaint said. She indicated that she got caught soon after entering.

“Clearly I’m not good at this,” it quoted her as saying.

The stepmother said in an interview that she’s afraid of her stepdaughter and applied for a restraining order against her. She also said that while most of her husband’s ashes were buried, she sent Mitchell a miniature container with some of them.

Mitchell was arrested while the Senate is on its Passover break. Her arrest comes at an awkward time for Senate Democrats, who hold just a one-seat majority with just under four weeks left in the legislative session. Her absence would make it difficult to pass any legislation that lacks bipartisan support.

Mitchell’s arrest took Senate leaders by surprise. The Senate Democratic Caucus said in a statement Monday that it’s “aware of the situation and has no comment pending further information.”

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mark Johnson, of East Grand Forks, said he was shocked but knew very few details.

“The public expects Legislators to meet a high standard of conduct,” Johnson said in a statement. “As information comes out, we expect the consequences to meet the actions, both in the court of law, and in her role at the legislature.”

Mitchell worked as a meteorologist with the U.S. military and for KSTP-TV and Minnesota Public Radio before she was elected to the Senate in 2022 from a suburban St. Paul district. She still serves as lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, commanding a weather unit, her official profile says. She worked for The Weather Channel earlier in her career, her profile says.

NEW YORK (AP) — When Anna Branch, 37, had her hours at work reduced at the start of the pandemic in 2020, she suddenly noticed ads for an app called EarnIn.

“You know how they get you — the algorithms — like they’re reading your mind,” Branch said. “The ad said I could get up to $100 this week and repay it in my next pay period.”

Branch, who was working as an administrative assistant in Charleston, South Carolina, downloaded the app, agreed to the flat fee, and added the suggested “tip.” The cash helped her cover expenses until payday, when the app debited the borrowed $100, plus $18 for the fee and tip. Four years later, Branch said she still uses the app, as often as once a month.

EarnIn is one of more than a dozen companies that provide this service, billed as Earned Wage Access. The apps extend small short-term loans to workers in between paychecks so they can pay bills and meet everyday needs. On payday, the user repays the money out of their wages. Between 2018 and 2020, transaction volume tripled from $3.2 billion to $9.5 billion, according to Datos Insights.

While Earned Wage Access apps have been around for over a decade, the pandemic and its aftermath boosted their popularity. Some apps have approachable human names — like Dave, Clio, Albert, and Brigit — while others suggest financial freedom: Empower, FloatMe, FlexWage, Rain. The typical user earns less than $50,000 a year, according to the Government Accountability Office, and has experienced the pinch of two years of high inflation.

Proponents of the apps say they help people living paycheck to paycheck manage their finances and avoid the need for more onerous options, such as payday loans or overdrawing a bank account. But some analysts, consumer advocates and lawmakers say the apps are actually payday loans in a new tech wrapper, and that they can trap users in an endless cycle of borrowing that depletes their earnings.

Critics also say the costs of the loans are not always transparent. Many charge monthly subscription fees and most charge mandatory fees for instant transfers of funds, though there is typically a no-cost option to receive funds in one to three business days. The average APR for a loan repaid in seven to 14 days was 367%, a rate comparable to payday lending, according to a report from the Center for Responsible Lending.

Muddying the waters is the fact that some employers have integrated Earned Wage Access apps into their payroll, with different costs, models, and fee structures. Amazon and Walmart, for example, do not always charge employees for early access to earned wages outside of regular pay periods.

Sheri Wilkins, 60, who works as a home health aide in College Station, Texas, said she’s used the apps since 2020, and that she feels “dependent on the money.”

The healthcare contractor that employs Wilkins offers DailyPay, and Wilkins typically uses the app to transfer the amount of that day’s wages ($10.60 an hour) twice a day — once after each of her two shifts, for which she’s paid separately. Each time, she pays a $3.49 fee, for a total of $7 a day. At $35 a week, the app eats up more than three hours of her pay weekly, or a-day-and-a-half’s work per month.

“They get you hooked on having that money,” Wilkins said. “It’s fine and great to have it — to buy groceries and cigarettes — but when it comes time to have your paycheck, it’s only $50-$60.”

Wilkins said she was not aware the app had a free option, which would transfer the money in one to three days. She said the app always directed her to the instant transfer option.

A spokesperson for DailyPay said in a statement that the app offers two option with no fees to most users and a third with what they described as a “small ATM-like fee.”

Matt Bahl, who researches workplace issues for the Financial Health Network, said the growth of the Earned Wage Access industry is a symptom of widespread financial insecurity.

“It’s meant to help solve short-term liquidity challenges,” he said. “But if those challenges are the result of insufficient income, it won’t solve them. You can’t ‘tech’ your way out of material deficits.”

Andrew Lewis, 32, who lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said he uses EarnIn, in part to meet unexpected expenses. Lewis works as a process technician for an electronics manufacturing company, and said he sometimes uses the app as often as every week, for gas money or something his toddler or wife needs.

Lewis usually pays the “tips” the apps suggest, he said, but he doesn’t “like them that much,” in part because of the messaging.

“Tips keep us running for millions of members like you,” EarnIn’s in-app copy reads. The company says it uses tips to maintain a no-fee option.

“I feel a little guilty because of how they make it sound,” Lewis said.

In 2021, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation found “users often feel compelled to leave (tips) due to applied pressure tactics like… claiming tips are used to support other vulnerable consumers or for charitable purposes.”

In its report, the department found that borrowers who use Earned Wage Access take out an average of 36 loans a year. On 5.8 million transactions, 73% of consumers paid a “tip,” at $4.09 per tip on average. On three dozen loans, that’s $147 annually in tips alone.

Penny Lee, head of the Financial Technology Association, an industry group, says more people are turning to Earned Wage Access as a convenience that allows them to make up for the “disconnect between what the consumer needs to be able to spend … and their pay cycle.”

Like Buy Now, Pay Later loans, the apps don’t run credit checks and bill themselves as interest-free. Unlike payday loans or auto title loans, where borrowers pledge their vehicles as collateral, users of the apps don’t face balloon payments, black marks on their credit reports, or the possibility of losing their car if they fail to pay. Supporters also say the apps don’t sue or send collectors after unpaid debts.

The FTA says the average cost per use of an Earned Wage Access app is between $2.59 and $6.27. The companies say the charges are comparable to ATM fees and cheaper than overdraft fees, which people incur if they don’t have enough money left in a checking account to cover a bill before payday. The average overdraft fee is more than $25 and can be as high as $36.

However, in its report, the Center for Responsible Lending found that users of the apps experienced a 56% increase in checking account overdrafts.

A number of states have moved to subject Earned Wage Access to the Truth in Lending Act, which caps fees and interest for short-term loans and covers payday loans. The industry backs a federal bill, currently before Congress, that would exclude the apps from being regulated by the Truth in Lending Act.

When Connecticut passed a law capping the fees the apps could charge, EarnIn stopped operating in the state. Asked why, EarnIn CEO Ram Palaniappan said it was no longer “economically viable.”

Both California and Hawaii are currently drafting laws to rein in Earned Wage Access fees.

Rep. Bryan Steil, R-WI, one of the federal bill’s backers said, it will “ensure workers across the country can continue to use these services, which help them to better connect work to reward.”

But Hawaii State Sen. Chris Lee, a Democrat who introduced regulation targeting Earned Wage Access in the state Senate, called the 300-plus percentage interest rates a “modern payday loan scheme.” Lee said he would like to see more transparency and worker protections.

Lauren Saunders, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, says this a pivotal moment for regulation.

“If (Earned Wage Access) were being used by people to cover one emergency cost a year, it could be better than being subject to overdraft fees or payday or auto title loans,” she said. “But being better than terrible predatory products shouldn’t be the bar.”

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The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

BOSTON (AP) — William Strickland, a longtime civil right activist and supporter of the Black Power movement who worked with Malcom X and other prominent leaders in the 1960s, has died. He was 87.

Strickland, whose death April 10 was confirmed by a relative, first became active in civil rights as a high schooler in Massachusetts. He later became inspired by the writings of Richard Wright and James Baldwin while an undergraduate at Harvard University, according to Peter Blackmer, a former student who is now an assistant professor of Africology and African American Studies at Easter Michigan University.

“He made incredible contributions to the Black freedom movement that haven’t really been appreciated,” Blackmer said. “His contention was that civil rights wasn’t a sufficient framework for challenging the systems that were behind the oppression of Black communities throughout the diaspora.”

Strickland joined the Boston chapter of the Northern Student Movement in the early 1960s, which provided support to sit-ins and other protests in the South. He became the group’s executive director in 1963 and from there became a supporter of the Black Power movement, which emphasized racial pride, self-reliance and self-determination. Strickland also worked alongside Malcolm X, Baldwin and others in New York on rent strikes, school boycotts and protests against police brutality.

Amilcar Shabazz, a professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, said Strickland followed a path very similar to civil rights pioneer Du Bois.

“He underwent a similar kind of experience to committing himself to being an agent of social change in the world against the three big issues of the civil rights movement — imperialism or militarism, racism and the economic injustice of plantation capitalism,” Shabazz said. “He committed himself against those triple evils. He did that in his scholarship, in his teaching, in his activism and just how he walked in the world.”

After the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Strickland co-founded the independent Black think tank, the Institute of the Black World. From its start in 1969, it served for several years as the gathering place for Black intellectuals.

From there, he joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he spent 40 years teaching political science and serving as the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Papers. He also traveled to Africa and the Caribbean, where Shabazz said he met leaders of Black liberation movements in Africa and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Strickland also wrote about racism and capitalism for several outlets including Essence and Souls and served as a consultant for several documentaries including “Eyes on the Prize” and the PBS documentary “Malcolm X — Make It Plain,” Blackmer said.

Comparing him to Malcolm X, Blackmer said one of Strickland’s gifts was being able to take weighty issues like “complex systems of oppression” and make them “understandable and accessible” to popular audiences.

“As a teacher, that is how he taught us to think as students — to be able to understand and deconstruct racism, capitalism, imperialism and to be fearless in doing so and not being afraid to name the systems that we’re confronting as a means of developing a strategy to challenge them,” Blackmer said.

For relatives, Strickland was an intellectual giant with a sense of humor who was not afraid “to speak his mind.”

“He always spoke truth to power. That was the type of guy he was,” said Earnestine Norman, a first cousin recalling their conversations that often occurred over the FaceTime phone app. They were planning a trip to Spain where Strickland had a home before he started having health problems.

“He always told the truth about our culture, of being Africans here in America and the struggles we had,” she continued. “Sometimes it may have embarrassed some people or whatever but his truth was his truth. His knowledge was his knowledge and he was not the type of person as the saying goes to bite his tongue.”

BALTIMORE (AP) — Officials in Baltimore plan to open a deeper channel for commercial ships to access the city’s port starting on Thursday, marking a significant step toward reopening the major maritime shipping hub that has remained closed to most traffic since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last month.

The new channel will have a controlling depth of 35 feet (10.7 meters), which is a substantial increase over the three other temporary channels established in recent weeks. It puts the cleanup effort slightly ahead of schedule as officials previously said they hoped to open a channel of that depth by the end of April.

The cargo ship that took down the Key Bridge lost power and veered off course shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore headed to Sri Lanka. The Dali remains grounded amid the wreckage as crews work to remove massive pieces of mangled steel that came crashing down onto the ship’s deck.

Officials said crews have cleared enough wreckage to open the new channel to “commercially essential vessels” from Thursday until the following Monday or Tuesday. Ships will be required to have a Maryland pilot on board and two tugboats escorting them through the channel.

Starting early next week, the channel will be closed again until roughly May 10 to accommodate “critical and highly dynamic salvage operations,” port officials said in a news release Monday.

The port’s main channel, with a controlling depth of 50 feet (15.2 meters), is set to reopen next month. That will essentially restore marine traffic to normal.

In a court filing Monday, Baltimore’s mayor and city council called for the Dali’s owner and manager to be held fully liable for the bridge collapse, which they said could have devastating economic impacts on the region. They said the port, which was established before the nation’s founding, has long been an economic driver for Baltimore and the surrounding area. Losing the bridge itself has disrupted a major east coast trucking route.

The filing came in response to an earlier petition on behalf of the two companies asking a court to cap their liability under a pre-Civil War provision of an 1851 maritime law — a routine procedure for such cases. A federal court in Maryland will ultimately decide who’s responsible and how much they owe.

BERLIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan woman was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder and other crimes after prosecutors say she drunkenly smashed her SUV into a boat club that was hosting a birthday party, killing two young siblings and injuring several other people.

Marshella Chidester, 66, faces eight counts in Saturday’s tragic crash at the Swan Boat Club in Monroe County, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Detroit, court records show.

Chidester, who has been in jail since the crash, was due in court later Tuesday, prosecutor Jeff Yorkey said.

A message seeking comment was left for Chidester’s attorney. The Detroit News reported that Chidester is a former commodore at the boat club.

The crash killed 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and her 4-year-old brother, Zayn Phillips, the sheriff’s office said. Their mother and another sibling were among the injured.

Authorities haven’t said whom the birthday party was honoring.

The boat club located off Swan Creek near Lake Erie is a membership-based organization that hosts holiday parties and other events, and provides docking space for members who own boats, according to its website. The club also advertises on social media that members can rent the clubhouse or pavilion for personal events including birthday parties.

MOSCOW (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain jailed on espionage charges until at least late June, after a Moscow court on Tuesday rejected his appeal that sought to end his pretrial detention.

The 32-year-old U.S. citizen was detained in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent over a year in jail, with authorities routinely extending his time behind bars and rejecting his appeals. Last month, his pretrial detention was continued yet again — until June 30 — in a ruling that he and his lawyers challenged. A Moscow appellate court rejected it Tuesday.

In the courtroom on Tuesday, Gerhskovich, wearing a white T-shirt and an open checked shirt, looked relaxed, at times laughing and chatting with members of his legal team.

His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg rattled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what, if any, evidence they have to support the espionage charges.

Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

Analysts have pointed out that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips in soaring U.S.-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine. At least two U.S. citizens arrested in Russia in recent years — including WNBA star Brittney Griner — have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the U.S.

In December, the U.S. State Department said it had made a significant offer to secure the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, which it said Moscow had rejected.

Officials did not describe the offer, although Russia has been said to be seeking the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was given a life sentence in Germany in 2021 for the killing in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked this year about releasing Gershkovich, appeared to refer to Krasikov by pointing to a man imprisoned by a U.S. ally for “liquidating a bandit” who had allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya.

Beyond that hint, Russian officials have kept mum about the talks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeatedly said that while “certain contacts” on swaps continue, “they must be carried out in absolute silence.”

Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.

Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s U.N. mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.

By Jarrett Renshaw

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump go before voters on Tuesday’s primaries in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, one of the last tests of voter enthusiasm ahead of November’s general election.

Pennsylvania, with 19 Electoral College votes toward the 270 needed to win, is a top prize and a toss-up in the 2024 presidential election featuring a Biden-Trump rematch.

In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by less than 1.5%, or roughly 80,000 votes. Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016.

Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and Trump secured the Republican nod in early March, and neither faces serious opposition on the primary ballot. Still, the pair have visited the state in recent weeks and focused on the general election rather than Tuesday’s vote. Biden was born in the state, and has for decades been a fixture in the politics of neighboring Delaware.

Biden is spending the day in Florida, where he plans to tie Trump to a newly installed six-week abortion ban that will also go before state voters this fall. He took to the social media platform X to urge Pennsylvania voters to go to the polls on Tuesday. “There’s too much at stake to sit this one out,” he said.

Meanwhile, Trump is in New York state court in Manhattan as his criminal hush money trial enters its second day of testimony. “Pennsylvania, get out and vote,” Trump said as he entered the courtroom on Tuesday.

Incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Dave McCormick, are both expected to breeze through Tuesday’s primaries. The race, which opinion polls show as close, could help decide whether Democrats retain control of the Senate.

Muslim and Arab-American voters are mounting an “Abandon Biden” campaign in Pennsylvania to protest the president’s handling of the Gaza crisis. He faced similar efforts in battleground states like Arizona, Wisconsin and North Carolina, with the biggest turnout a 13% uncommitted vote in Michigan’s primary.

Organizers in Pennsylvania are aiming to get 40,000 write-in “uncommitted” votes. The results are not expected to come on Tuesday night because they will have to be entered manually.

Pennsylvania is home to a sizeable Arab-American population, but also one of the largest Jewish populations, trailing only New York, California, Florida and New Jersey, according to a U.S. Jewish population report published by Brandeis University.

Although Trump’s former rival Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, remains on the Pennsylvania ballot, voting is confined to registered Republicans and the primary locks out the independent voters who favored Haley during her run.

Still, any substantive result from Haley would show that some chunk of the party continues to be unhappy with the former president, who is currently on trial on 34 criminal counts in New York.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; additional reporting by Nandita Bose, James Oliphant and Susan Heavey; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Oatis)

By Mike Stone and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States is preparing a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, the first to be sourced from the yet to be signed Ukraine-Israel bill, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

The aid package includes vehicles, Stinger air defense munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 155 millimeter artillery ammunition, TOW and Javelin anti-tank munitions and other weapons that can immediately be put to use on the battlefield, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

President Joe Biden had asked the U.S. Congress to provide $60.8 billion in aid to Ukraine, but the initiative stalled when Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to move the measure forward for months.

Once the Ukraine-Israel bill is signed, funds to replenish stocks would rebound, alleviating Pentagon concern that the use of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) to aid Ukraine would compromise U.S. military preparedness.

Presidential Drawdown Authority allows the president to authorize the transfer of excess weapons from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

As the replenishment funds are deployed, U.S. defense companies would gain more contracts as the Russia-Ukraine war grinds on.

Experts expect a boost in the order backlog of RTX along with other major companies that receive government contracts, such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, following the passage of the supplemental spending bill.

(Reporting by Mike Stone and Steve Holland in WashingtonEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Sales of new U.S. single-family homes rebounded in March from February’s downwardly revised level, drawing support from a persistent shortage of previously owned houses on the market, but momentum could be curbed by a resurgence in mortgage rates.

New home sales jumped 8.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 693,000 units last month, the highest level since last September, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. The sales pace for February was revised down to 637,000 units from the previously reported 662,000 units.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for more than 10% of U.S. home sales, would advance by a rate of 670,000 units.

“Mortgage rates have backed up, climbing above 7% in recent weeks, a headwind for buyers,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. “Even so, a lack of supply of existing homes is likely to shift demand towards new homes.”

New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading indicator of the housing market. They, however, can be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Sales increased 8.3% on a year-on-year basis in March.

Though the new housing market remains underpinned by the dearth of previously owned homes for sale, rising mortgage rates are taking a toll on affordability.

Data last week showed single-family housing starts and building permits declined in March. Sentiment among single-family homebuilders was unchanged in April, with the National Association of Home Builders noting that “buyers are hesitating until they can better gauge where interest rates are headed.”

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen back above 7%, data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac showed, as strong reports on the labor market and inflation suggested the Federal Reserve could delay an anticipated interest rate cut this year. A few economists doubt the U.S. central bank will lower borrowing costs in 2024.

New home sales rose in all four regions last month, with the Northeast posting a 27.8% surge. Sales in the Midwest gained 5.3% and vaulted 7.7% in the densely populated South. They increased 8.6% in the West.

The median new house price in March was $430,700, a 1.9% drop from a year ago. Builders are constructing smaller and cheaper houses. But the pace of the price decline is slowing as fewer builders cut prices, a trend that could persist.

The NAHB survey last week showed the share of builders cutting home prices fell to 22% in April from 24% in March and 36% in December. Fewer builders were also offering incentives to boost sales.

Overall house prices, however, continue to rise because of the supply squeeze in the home resales market. Data from mortgage finance agency Fannie Mae last week showed house prices increased 7.4% on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter compared to a 6.6% rise in the fourth quarter.

Most of the new homes sold last month were in the $300,000-$399,999 price range, followed by the $500,000-$749,000 price bracket. There were 477,000 new homes on the market at the end of March, up from 465,000 units in February. At March’s sales pace it would take 8.3 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, down from 8.8 months in February.

Houses under construction accounted for 59.1% of inventory. Homes yet to be built made up 22.2% of supply, while completed houses accounted for 18.7%.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)