CHN members, supporters, friends, and activists gathered in the Gompers Room of the AFL-CIO headquarters last week for an evening of celebration, commiseration, and congratulations, even in the shadow the Trump White House just a few blocks away. This year, at the 2019 Human Needs Hero Reception, CHN honored longtime children’s and anti-poverty advocate Marian Wright Edelman and Peter Edelman, Faculty Director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, and also a longtime champion in the fight against poverty. The two received CHN’s Human Needs Hero Awards.
Archives: Voices
CHN urges Trump Administration to withdraw threat to SNAP benefits
The Coalition on Human Needs this week demanded that the Trump Administration withdraw a proposal that would cause more than 3 million Americans to lose SNAP benefits – and many children to lose access to important nutrition assistance programs ranging from school lunch to WIC. In comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein emphasized the importance of SNAP as a tool for fighting poverty, and expressed strong opposition to the Administration’s effort to revise Categorical Eligibility, a long-standing option that 40 states use to better serve needy families.
First Focus report: Child poverty remains high while federal spending on children declines
First Focus on Children recently held its annual Children’s Budget Summit and released its signature Children’s Budget publication that analyzes how well children have fared in federal spending over the past 5 years. The poverty rate for children is 54.4 percent higher than it is for adults, so how well is the federal government doing in appropriating money to programs that benefit children? Unfortunately, we aren’t doing enough. The share of federal spending on children has dropped to an all-time low of 7.21 percent of the federal budget, a near 10 percent decline since 2015.
Are child poverty and America’s housing crisis up for debate?
Thursday night the leading presidential candidates took the stage in Houston for the latest debate. Earlier this summer, Voices for Human Needs took note of the fact that candidates are rarely asked debate questions about how to address poverty. This week we witnessed a number of groups and individuals who argued that presidential debates should include questions about how to solve homelessness and America’s affordable housing crisis, and about how to best address child poverty.
Resources from around the Coalition: CHN members weigh in on Census numbers
When the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual reports on income, poverty and health care coverage this week, CHN members were quick to weigh in with their own commentary. You can see a number of their press statements and blog posts (and lots of other resources) on our Census resource page. But meanwhile, here is a sample of what our members are saying.
Unhealthy statistics: fewer Americans have health insurance — and millions are not sharing in economic growth
For the first time since implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the number of uninsured Americans has risen – evidence of the Trump Administration’s assault on health care. U.S. Census Bureau statistics released Tuesday show 27.5 million Americans, or 8.5 percent of the population, did not have health insurance in 2018, an increase of 1.9 million over 2017.
Reflecting, renewing, and responding to overcome 400 years of oppression
Last month, CLASP joined Cities United in Hampton, Virginia, during the remembrance of the 400-year anniversary of the first Africans being forcibly brought to this country and enslaved. Cities United works to eliminate the violence in American cities related to African American men and boys by centering young Black men and promoting prevention instead of prosecution and intervention instead of incarceration. The group’s 90+ participating cities are committed to cutting violence in half by 2025.
Trump Administration backtracks, in part, on deportation of critically ill immigrants, including children
Last week, Voices for Human Needs reported on a new Trump Administration policy – unannounced, and implemented with no input from the public – that ended medical deferred status, which allows immigrants with serious health issues to remain in the U.S. for treatment. Today there is some good news and a lot of bad news. The good news is that over the Labor Day weekend, the Trump Administration backtracked and announced that it will no longer order current applicants for medical deferred status to leave the country within 33 days, which would mean forgoing treatment. The bad news is that the Trump Administration’s announcement does not reinstate the medical deferments for future immigrants with severe health issues.
Breaking: ‘The Trump Administration is now literally deporting kids with cancer’
Within the past several weeks, immigrant families with extremely ill children – children with cancer, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, heart disease, HIV, and other life-threatening ailments – began receiving terse letters from the federal government. The letters informed them that their application to stay in the U.S. under what is known as “medical deferred action” had been denied, and they had 33 days to leave the country, meaning their children would have to forgo additional medical treatment.
With Hurricane Dorian looming, Trump Administration transfers $155 million in disaster aid to ICE
As Puerto Rico braced for the impact of Tropical Storm Dorian, media reports emerged this week detailing the Trump Administration’s plan to divert at least $155 million in federal disaster aid in order to increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The $155 million, part of an even larger $271 million being taken from the Department of Homeland Security, would come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund.
Report: After five years of minimum wage increases, New York City’s restaurant industry is thriving
Five years after New York State passed the first of several laws to gradually raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, New York City’s restaurant industry continues to thrive, with strong growth in restaurant industry employment, wages, and the number of establishments around the city, according to a new report released by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School and the National Employment Law Project.
Register Today: CHN Census Poverty Data Webinar Wednesday, Sept. 4.
On September 10th, the Census Bureau will release national poverty and income data, as well as nationwide and state health insurance data. CHN will host a webinar at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4 in which we will preview the data and explain how navigate the Census Bureau’s web site to find the data you need. The webinar is entitled, “What Can We Expect from the New Poverty, Income and Health Insurance Data, And How Can We Find the Info We Need?”