On Wednesday, the Senate passed and President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which will provide immediate paid sick leave and paid family leave to millions of people, expanded unemployment insurance, vital nutrition aid, more Medicaid funds for states, and free COVID-19 testing. But more action is needed. The next round of legislation must include direct payments to families and individuals amongst other critical services.
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CHN to Senate: ‘Not only is our income at risk, but our lives’
Update: On Wednesday, March 18, the Senate passed and President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. On Friday, March 13, the Coalition on Human Needs sent a letter to all 100 Senators urging passage of comprehensive legislation to address the COVID-19 disease outbreak. In a related move, CHN also urged its supporters to call their senators and demand passage. The letter, signed by CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein, states that passage of the legislation “will be a step towards putting the needs of low-income and vulnerable people first.” But it warns that even with swift passage of pending legislation, a more “fully adequate response” will be needed very soon.
Babies are counting on an accurate Census
The Decennial Census occurs once every ten years and babies count on us to get it right. Overlooking and undercounting young children has serious consequences. The population most likely to be missed in the Census is the same group of children most likely to live in poverty, experience homelessness, and live in stress. These babies can’t afford to be missed.
New Strategies from Connecticut Count All Kids Project
In Connecticut, child advocates are engaging in a variety of approaches to make sure that young children, especially young children under the age of five, are counted in the 2020 Census. The efforts are crucial because in 2010, there was a net undercount of an estimated 3.3 percent of Connecticut’s young children. About 22 percent of the state’s residents – 804,000 people – live in hard-to-count tracts. About 12.4 percent of children (23,075) live in households where they are not the child of the householder, and nearly one in ten (9 percent) live with a grandparent – factors that make it even more difficult to ensure an accurate count. So what are child advocates doing? Lots! Here’s a rundown – and, quite possibly, some ideas that advocates in other states will want to try.
Would coronavirus disproportionately hurt low-income people? Yes.
The coronavirus does not discriminate based on income or class. Just ask the more than 700 passengers aboard the Diamond Princess who became ill. One could probably surmise that most passengers aboard that cruise ship boasted above-average wealth (and the crew members, generally in the opposite income category, also were affected). But for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the virus itself, we know that even a moderate pandemic could hurt lower-income people more than others. This fact was borne out in recent days by news articles reported by three major publications.
Forty years after passage of Refugee Act, our country’s refugee program is in tatters
Seven-year-old Biar Atem was in a field helping tend his father’s cattle when the explosions began. The second civil war had come to his South Sudan village. Two million people would die; millions more would be displaced, including Atem, who became part of the roughly 30,000 “Lost Boys of South Sudan,” who walked barefoot for 1,000 miles to reach refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. After living in camps for well over a decade, Atem was allowed to settle in the U.S. in 2001. The law that allowed them to come here is known as the Refugee Act of 1980. On Tuesday of this week, this legislation marked its 40th birthday
Remembering Susan Rees
Susan Rees passed away on February 1. At this sad moment, we at CHN celebrate Susan’s vision and strength, and to rededicate ourselves to further her work. Susan helped to build the Coalition on Human Needs into an organization that has endured, committed to reducing economic injustice and poverty. As Executive Director from 1983 to 1991, Susan strengthened a coalition of faith groups, labor, policy experts, service providers and civil rights groups to fight against the Reagan Administration’s efforts to weaken the federal role in helping low-income people and protecting against racial discrimination.
Wall Street’s coronavirus panic means little for Americans without wealth to invest
Monday’s 1,031-point stock market plunge certainly brought panic to financiers, traders, policymakers and investors. But did the long stock market rise parallel the fortunes of America’s real economy? “Journalists are obsessed with the stock market,” says Jacob Hacker, director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. “But for most Americans, it’s a side show in their economic lives. What really matters to them is the security of their jobs and health care, and the amount they have to pay for big-ticket items like housing and education.”
Euphemism Radar and the Trump Budget
When I turned my attention to President Trump’s new budget, my Euphemism Radar was engaged. And there’s a lot. The Trump Administration wants to do a lot of modernizing, modifying, reallocating, reforming, and improving program or payment integrity. A common theme emerges: they’re all about cutting.
‘The shameful state of our children is not an inevitability – it is a choice.’
Every two seconds in America, a public school student is suspended. Every nine seconds, a high school student drops out. Every 43 seconds, a young person is arrested and every 47 seconds, a child is abused or neglected. A child or teenager is killed with a gun every two hours and 34 minutes; suicide claims the life of a young person every five hours. These are but a few of the sobering statistics included in “The State of America’s Children 2020,” recently published by the Children’s Defense Fund.
Not one dollar for The Wall – but let’s not waste money on the Pentagon, either
Last week the Trump Administration announced plans to “reprogram” $3.8 billion appropriated for military spending, including exorbitant military hardware, and use the funds for further construction of the President’s wall along the southern U.S. border. When we heard the news, the phrase “politics makes strange bedfellows” came to mind. On the one hand: CHN opposes any funding whatsoever for President Trump’s wall, which is divisive, expensive, and won’t do a whole lot to deter illegal immigration. On the other hand: much of the $3.8 billion that is being “reprogrammed” includes funding for things the Administration never requested and the Pentagon never asked for and says we don’t need.
CHN Analysis: Two-Thirds of Human Needs Programs Have Lost Ground Since 2010
A new analysis released today by the Coalition on Human Needs found that since 2010, 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. CHN analyzed spending for 191 human needs programs funded by the federal government. It found that two-thirds (127 programs) were funded at a lower level this year than in FY 2010, adjusted for inflation. More than a quarter of these (49 programs) lost 25 percent or more of funding over the decade. Nearly six out of ten (112 programs) dropped by more than 10 percent.