Census Bureau analysts, policy experts, and disability rights advocates will convene next week to discuss whether or how Bureau officials should change the way disabled Americans are counted. At issue is a change in the methodology used in the way people with disabilities are tallied in the American Community Survey (ACS) – one that advocates fear could result in a severe undercount.
Archives: Voices
Advocates speak out with tax fight to come in 2025
Diane and Michael Killen are small business owners who live in western Colorado and have operated a small video production company for 20 years. Together they hire local people, serve local clients, and help fuel the local economy. In retrospect, they are not fond of the 2017 Trump tax cut.
CHN unveils new voter guides for activists’ use
The Coalition on Human Needs is happy to announce the release of CHN’s Vote for Human Needs Voter Issue Guides! These guides are crafted to help you navigate the critical conversations surrounding human needs issues as we approach the election.
Whether you print them as flyers, handouts, or use the content in other creative ways, these resources are designed to fit the needs of your organization.
A wealth of data (2024)
It’s unusual for us at CHN to write about a wealth of anything, but we are delighted to offer you a wealth of American Community Survey data on how people are faring in your state, congressional district, or major metropolitan area.
Census Bureau releases American Community Survey (ACS)
Today the Census Bureau released new American Community Survey (ACS), 1-year estimates. This includes data for states, communities, and congressional districts on a wealth of topics, including income, poverty, health insurance, housing, education, disability and much more for the most recent year available (2023).
Measuring human needs advocacy success
Tuesday the Census Bureau released its CPS-ASEC and Supplemental Poverty Measure for 2023: — for human needs advocates, the most important Census Bureau release of the year when our government measures the progress we are making when it comes to fighting poverty, lack of health care, and income disparities between rich and poor. It is also a time for us to come together as a human needs community and celebrate the progress we have made – and we have made progress, although there is still much work to be done.
A Few Brief Highlights from Tuesday’s Census Bureau Data Release
Real median household income increased from 2022 to 2023, poverty increased (but with a caveat), and the number of Americans without health insurance remained unchanged, according to Census Bureau statistics released Tuesday. Of prime importance, the survey data showed greater struggles for families when taking into account more accurate assumptions about their income and expenses.
What we can learn from the new poverty and health insurance data out this week
Tuesday’s release of data about poverty, income, and health insurance will reinforce vital lessons. We learned that the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), in place in 2021, reduced child poverty nearly by half. Despite this historic gain for children, there were not enough votes in Congress to continue the CTC expansion. So the nation got another, much more painful, lesson: in 2022, the child poverty rate as measured by the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure more than doubled, rising from 5.2 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022. What happened to child poverty in 2023 is one of the most important findings to look for on Tuesday. If child poverty remains substantially higher than it was when families benefited from the expanded Child Tax Credit, it confirms the lesson we have already learned: we must restore the expanded CTC.
U.S. Census Bureau data out this week: What to expect and how CHN can help
The U.S. Census Bureau this week will release several reports aimed at explaining how Americans are faring when it comes to income, poverty, and health insurance coverage. The reports will be released Tuesday and Thursday, and the Coalition on Human Needs is preparing materials to help you understand what the information means and how to respond.
The American Community Survey: Efforts to make data collection more inclusive
The American Community Survey (ACS) is the most important Census Bureau survey you’ve never heard of. This nationwide survey provides vital information on a yearly basis about the housing, employment, economic security, education, health insurance coverage, and demographic characteristics of the nation’s population and neighborhoods. These data are used to allocate trillions of dollars in federal funding, develop informed policies, conduct rigorous research, assess programs, and enforce civil rights laws that protect people from discrimination.
Project 2025 and public health: A grim diagnosis
Millions of Medicaid and Medicare recipients will be harmed. Newly won prescription drug negotiations will be stopped and costs will once again spiral, as will the cost of vaccinations. And in part by causing untold damage to the Environmental Protection Agency, millions more will suffer adverse health effects. During a recent webinar, three experts with the Center on American Progress (CAP) discussed the potential impact Project 2025 would have on health policy. Their diagnosis: not good.
What Project 2025 has in store for the Census Bureau
Politicizing the Census Bureau. Adding a citizenship question to the decennial Census. Weaponizing and politicizing data collection. Undermining decennial Census and American Community Survey questions. These are only some of the things Project 2025 has in store for the Census Bureau if its radical agenda has its way.