Demand Congress use its “power of the purse” to hold Trump accountable
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution says: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
The President of the United States does not have unlimited authority to decline congressional appropriations and decide what gets funded and by how much depending on his whims and which political adversaries he wants to punish.
By hijacking congressionally appropriated funds, Donald Trump and Elon Musk (and his unqualified, unscreened team) are yanking funding from people and programs in our communities―which will have a real impact on many of our neighbors as they face frozen funding for critical human needs programs that people rely on to survive.
Congress must stand up to stop this lawless power grab.
The Reckless Abandonment Edition. While President Trump admits to misleading the American public on the health threat posed by COVID-19 – and more than 191,000 Americans are dead partly as a result – there can be no denying that the economic threat our country faces is dire. And yet: still no meaningful action from the Senate. Food scarcity in this country is exploding at an alarming rate. An eviction moratorium is in place, but due to loopholes and bureaucracy, people are still being evicted – and tens of millions more will join them early next year unless Congress provides emergency rental assistance. The $600 weekly federal UI payment has long expired – and the temporary, not-quite-workable $300 that the President authorized by taking disaster relief funds from FEMA soon will run out.
Calls on Congress to provide emergency, direct cash assistance to low-income renters and others devastated by the coronavirus pandemic are growing louder – and are coming from an increasingly diverse array of voices, including landlord associations and at least one right-leaning group. It seems that almost everyone wants Congress to act – local government officials, housing advocates, tenants, public health experts, economists, legal aid lawyers, and now, landlord associations.
Labor Day Edition. In August, we saw slower progress in job growth than in the previous two months. The 1.4 million jobs gained included 238,000 temporary Census workers, whose jobs will end in about a month. While total unemployment declined to 8.4 percent, it was 13 percent for Blacks, 10.5 percent for Latinx, and 7.3 percent for whites, underscoring continued disparities in the way the pandemic recession is hitting different racial/ethnic groups. COVID-19 is not going away. “There are several states that are at risk for surging, namely North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, warning about the possibility of further spread over the holiday weekend.
That’s what President Trump said about voting by mail, in a North Carolina television interview on September 2. He was responding to a question about the 600,000 absentee ballots that could be mailed in North Carolina for the November election. Voicing skepticism once again over the integrity of mailed ballots, he suggested that people test the system by sending in their absentee ballot and then showing up to vote on Election Day. “…if the system is as good as they say it is, then they obviously won’t be able to vote,” he acknowledged. Okay, so if people follow his suggestion (an intentional act), they would be breaking the law.
Last week, in a blog post headlined, “The national eviction crisis has arrived,” we detailed the sad reality that millions of Americans are now at dire risk of losing their homes. The primary reasons for this are COVID-19, the almost incomprehensible loss of jobs in the U.S., and the failure of Congress to approve comprehensive relief for renters and extend an eviction moratorium on federally backed housing. But the eviction crisis is not just a crisis involving housing and homelessness. Turns out, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) it also constitutes a public health emergency.
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s economy is hurting, yet residents can expect little in the way of federal relief. U.S. Senate lawmakers have recessed without passing a fifth coronavirus relief package, meaning the earliest Americans could expect any form of aid would be mid-September. According to census survey data, nearly half of North Carolina households included someone who had lost employment income between March and the end of July. Lindsay Saunders, board member of the anti-poverty group RESULTS, said elected officials aren’t treating the situation with the urgency it deserves.
We want to spread the word about National Voter Registration Day, which this year falls on Tuesday, Sept. 22 – less than four weeks from today. This “holiday” was first recognized in 2012 as a single day of coordinated media and field events to help eligible people get registered or update their registration, ahead of state deadlines. This year, organizers hope to register one million people all on one day. A look at today’s voter registration landscape in the age of COVID-19 reveals why this is so critically important.
More Disaster. Devastation from the record-breaking Hurricane Laura is now being inflicted on Louisiana and Texas. The parish including Lake Charles, Louisiana, now blasted by the storm, has had 3,573 COVID cases per 100,000. Jefferson County, which includes Beaumont, TX, has had 2,611 cases per 100,000. Both are dramatically higher than the 1,755 cases per 100,000 for the total U.S. The Trump Administration, instead of negotiating new COVID relief, unilaterally took $44 billion from FEMA disaster funds to pay $300/week in jobless benefits. Sadly, those funds will be needed, for hurricanes and devastating fires. The failure of the Senate and the Trump Administration to do the needed work on pandemic relief adds man-made, preventable disaster to the natural kind.
Karin Smith, a 52-year-old resident of Jupiter, Florida, is not someone you would think would be at risk of eviction. Until March, she was earning $96,000 a year as a consultant with the U.S. Department of Education. Then, on March 14, she lost her job and told her landlord that she would have trouble making the monthly $1,650 rent payment. The landlord initially agreed to a payment schedule, she said, but then on April 2 told Karin she would be evicted if she was even a day late.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — There are urgent calls for legislators to act quickly to ensure all Florida families can meet their basic needs during and after the COVID-19 crisis. Census data show about half of Florida’s households include someone who lost income through the pandemic. Trudy Novicki, president and CEO of Florida Impact to End Hunger, says the federal cutback is discouraging as she looks at the growing needs of Floridians. “Needs are going up, SNAP, people applying for food stamps has increased threefold since the pandemic began and it’s not ending,” she states.
TUCSON, Ariz. — An undercount in the 2020 Census could cost Arizona thousands of jobs, billions of dollars for social programs, and even a seat in Congress. And there’s concern that the Trump administration’s order to end the census count a month early could do just that. Experts said not getting an accurate count would hurt many of the state’s most vulnerable residents. But two out of five Arizonans have not completed their census forms yet, one of the lowest rates in the country.
Americans are dying by the thousands as they wait for a decision on whether they qualify for Social Security disability benefits. That’s the finding of a brand new report issued last week by the General Accountability Office (GAO). The report, which was issued on the eve of Social Security’s 85th birthday, was requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. John Larson (D-CT).
