CHN’s Executive Director Deborah Weinstein joined with other organizations in the Clean Budget Campaign this week to call on Congress to do its job and pass bills to fund the full range of government services, and to reject inserting extremist policies in the funding bills that could not get majority support on their own. Her comments are included in a Facebook video presentation to be shown on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 3:00 p.m.

You can also see Debbie’s video and the text of her remarks is below:

“Hi, I’m Debbie Weinstein, with the Coalition on Human Needs. Our member organizations, representing many thousands nationwide, are impatiently waiting for Congress to agree on funding for vital services. Congress is months late, and should be laser-focused on providing enough so that people who need help can get it – babies, children, people with disabilities, the aging.

“But there are some in Congress who would rather jam up funding bills with poison pill riders – extreme provisions that wouldn’t get a majority vote on their own.

“I’ll just mention a poisonous few. One rider would require the Census Bureau to exclude people from state population counts depending on their immigrant status. That’s unconstitutional – every person must be counted. Leaving people out will deny federal dollars to states and undemocratically skew voting representation.

“Other poison pills would block civil rights protections against discrimination by race and gender and deny asylum to desperate people. Special interests even want to stop the IRS from providing a free-tax-filing service.

“Another poison pill would set up a fiscal commission to fast-track cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP food aid, despite the public’s strong support for these programs.

“Here’s what we are telling Congress: Say NO to an extremist minority using poison pill riders to cut, block, and shut down. Do Your Job – pass spending bills that invest in our future.”