Publications and Analyses
Original reports, analyses, and publications from CHN and our partners raise awareness of human needs issues and inform the public and key decision-makers.
Feature: Letters to Congress
National Group Sign-On Letter Urges Congress to Quickly Enact No Less Than American Rescue Plan
February 5, 2021
On February 4th, over 100 national organizations including the Coalition on Human Needs called on the United States Congress to enact swiftly no less than what is called for in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Without speedy and comprehensive action, "...families that could have managed will be pushed into poverty and deaths that could have been avoided due to the pandemic will occur."
CHN letter to all U.S. Senators demands COVID-19 relief
September 25, 2020
CHN on Friday, Sept. 25 sent a letter to all 100 U.S. Senators demanding COVID-19 relief. It reads in part, "The pandemic has imperiled your constituents’ economic well-being and their health. COVID-19 cases are again rising, and as we enter the colder months, the threat will increase. The moratorium on evictions expires at the end of the year. If you leave now without acting, millions of people, unable to come up with one or more months of unpaid rent, will face eviction."
CHN’s letter to all members of the U.S. Senate urging Senators to extend U.S. Census reporting deadlines
August 10, 2020
CHN's letter to all members of the U.S. Senate urging Senators to extend statutory reporting deadlines for apportionment and redistricting data for the 2020 Census to April 30, 2021, extend the deadline to transmit state population totals to that date, prohibit the Bureau and the President from sending the relevant data to the Congress in advance of those deadlines, and to allocate $400 million to address Census Bureau operational challenges.
MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS
CHN: Two-Thirds of Human Needs Programs Have Lost Ground Since 2010; Decisions to Lift Caps Allow Gains in More Recent Years
February 19, 2020
Over the past decade, a large number of programs providing health care, housing, training and education, nutrition, child welfare and other social services of special importance to low-income people have seen significant reductions. Budget caps in place since 2011 have constrained spending for domestic and international appropriated programs, although Congress has lifted the caps over the past four years, allowing for some important growth. Expanded funding has not been distributed evenly, however. Veterans’ health care costs rose 48 percent over the decade, while all other domestic appropriations dropped 4 percent, adjusted for inflation. Many services disproportionately assisting low-income people were cut much more deeply from FY 2010 to FY 2020.
CHN submits comments opposing Social Security Disability Rule
February 3, 2020
The Coalition on Human Needs has submitted comments to the Social Security Administration in opposition to proposed changes to Continuing Disability Reviews. We strongly urge you to withdraw this proposed rule. The Social Security Administration is proposing to greatly increase the number and frequency of disability reviews it completes on people who have been approved for Social Security Disability benefits (adding 2.6 million reviews over 10 years). More Continuing Disability Reviews, (CDRs) mean more terminations. The rule would require millions of people with serious health conditions to undergo more frequent reviews of their medical conditions, but there is no evidence that conditions will have improved enough to allow them to work with adequate earnings. People with serious conditions will lose assistance because of the difficulty of complying with all the review requirements, not because their health has significantly improved.
Brookings: Georgia’s 1332 Waiver Violates the ACA and Cannot Lawfully Be Approved
January 24, 2020
Georgia’s waiver is the first to try to take advantage of the Trump Administration’s guidance weakening standards for 1332 waivers and the first to incorporate the Administration’s recommendations for these waivers. By fleshing out these proposals, the waiver shows how they endanger consumers and fail the statutory tests for 1332 waivers. Specifically, Georgia seeks to cap the total amount of assistance available to help low- and moderate-income people pay premiums – rationing subsidies if costs would otherwise exceed the cap; make subsidies available for plans that have individual deductibles as high as $17,000, about twice the ACA limit; and eliminate the ACA marketplace in the state, instead requiring consumers to enroll in coverage through private web-brokers or insurers. Our paper finds that these policies would put coverage for tens of thousands of Georgians at risk and would leave others with less comprehensive or less affordable coverage. The Brookings paper details the many ways in which the proposal violates federal law.
