CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Tracking Hardship, August 2, 2024
August 2, 2024
The compare and contrast edition. This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee all but completed marking up its 12 appropriations bills – it has one left to go (Homeland Security), which they plan to finish when members return after the August recess. House appropriators completed their 12 mark-ups last month, but their bills are going nowhere fast.
In this issue of Himan Needs Watch, we compare and contrast the two approaches to funding government over the next fiscal year. One approach is lean, but bipartisan and forward-thinking on many fronts.
The other approach involves massive budget cuts and harmful and hurtful poison pill policy riders.
Scroll down, and you’ll see the differences between the two approaches in funding affordable housing, the Census Bureau, domestic violence programs, home energy assistance, education, workers’ rights, early learning, child care, and Head Start, and funding for the IRS to pursue tax cheats and continue customer service improvements.
Stay tuned. It’s going to be an important funding showdown.
>10% |
Senate appropriators approved $78.2 billion for HUD’s vital affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs – a more than 10% increase from the previous fiscal year. Tweet this.
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-548,200
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By contrast, House appropriators cut HUD funding by $2.3 billion from the previous fiscal year. Cuts include a 60% decrease in funds for new affordable rental and home ownership housing construction via the HOME program. An estimated 548,200 people would be impacted by the reduction of Housing Choice Vouchers. Tweet this.
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+$100 million/+$15 million
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Senate appropriators approved $4.125 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a $100 million increase over the previous year, to help low-income people heat and cool their homes. By contrast, House appropriators increased LIHEAP’s budget by only $15 million. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) has requested $7 billion given rising heating and cooling costs. Tweet this.
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+$26.5 million/-$46 million
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Senate appropriators approved $739.5 million for grants provided by the Office on Violence Against Women, a $26.5 million increase over the previous year and the highest funding level ever. By contrast, House appropriators cut funding for Violence Against Women grants by $46 million. Tweet this.
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+$195 million/-2%
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Senate appropriators approved $1.58 billion for the Census Bureau – a $195 million increase over the previous year. By contrast, House appropriators cut funding by 2% and included two poison pill riders: one would, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, forbid including non-citizens in reapportionment and one would limit Bureau efforts to secure responses so severely that it would result in the decennial Census and the American Community Survey (ACS) counting barely a third of the country. Tweet this.
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+$280 million/-$4.7 billion
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Senate appropriators increased spending for Title 1 K-12 funding for students in low-income school districts by $280 million. By contrast, House appropriators cut Title 1 funding by $4.7 billion.
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+$15 million/-$25 million
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Senate appropriators approved $267.5 million for the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which helps recover wages workers are owed and combats exploitative child labor, an increase of $15 million. By contrast, House appropriators cut the department by $25 million.
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+$1.6 billion/
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Senate appropriators approved a $2.3 billion increase for early learning programs, a $1.6 billion increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), and a $700 million increase for Head Start. By contrast, House appropriators approved just a $25 million increase for CCDBG, and another $25 million for Head Start.
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-$2.35 billion
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Senate appropriators maintained the current $12.3 billion budget for the IRS, which received additional funds in recent years due to the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August 2022. The extra funds allowed the agency to greatly improve customer service and aggressively pursue tax cheats. By contrast, House appropriators cut IRS funding by a whopping $2.35 billion — $2 billion from enforcement efforts to combat tax evasion and $350 million from overhead, which allowed the agency to operate more efficiently.
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85 groups
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This week, 85 national, state, and local groups, including the Coalition on Human Needs, sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee urging members to maintain current funding levels for the IRS. They did just that.
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