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.
Residents of the city of Baltimore have now endured days of racist tweets from President Trump attacking their popular congressman, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and their city, which Trump called a “rodent-infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” CHN this week released an analysis detailing just what effect the Trump Administration is having (or will have, if it has its way) on Baltimore as well as other urban areas in the U.S. We examined a number of areas: housing, wages, nutrition assistance, education, health care, infrastructure, and consumer protections across a number of areas, including racial discrimination in housing, the home mortgage market, predatory and discriminatory lending, and fraudulent student loan practices.
The latest edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Book is out, and for America’s 74 million children, the news is both good and bad. The good news is that the annual report found, broadly speaking, that children in the U.S. had a better chance of thriving in 2017 than in 1990, with improvement in 11 of the 16 KIDS COUNT index measures of child well-being. The bad news is that racial and ethnic disparities persisted; the U.S. has failed to tear down barriers affecting children of color; and there’s been virtually no progress on child poverty since the publication of the first Data Book in 1990.
In 1968 the Kerner Commission concluded that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” The commission had been established by President Lyndon Johnson to explore the origins of the 1967 race riots. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication, the Eisenhower Foundation, the private sector continuation of the original Commission, released an update of the report entitled “Healing Our Divided Society.”
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on Congress’s spending deal, a new attack on migrants, a victory for minimum wage workers, and more.
“The American Dream.” Americans hold this phrase close to heart. People come from other areas of the world hoping to experience it firsthand. Yet at the same time, an increasing number of people seem to share in the belief that it is an unattainable myth.
CHN this week applauded the U.S. House of Representatives for its vote to increase the minimum wage. We know that $15 an hour is the absolute minimum workers need nationwide in order to survive. Lifting low-income workers is the right and moral thing to do, pure and simple, and the Senate should take up the Raise the Wage Act of 2019, H.R. 582, for its consideration.
The Trump administration is weighing a plan that uses a different definition of inflation to determine who lives in poverty and who does not. If implemented, the measure would affect people’s eligibility for food stamps, Head Start, school lunch programs, parts of Medicaid and Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and other federal programs.
Once again, the Trump Administration and Congress are headed towards the brink. In September, services we need may come to a screeching halt unless new funding levels and the federal government’s authority to borrow are renewed. Since Congress will be leaving for August recess in a few weeks, these vital funding conversations are happening this week! Congress must act soon to agree on spending levels and to raise the limits on federal borrowing (the “debt ceiling”). And the time to speak out is NOW! On Monday, July 22nd, please join in a National Call-in Day.
The Trump Administration reportedly plans to carry out mass arrests to speed deportations of thousands of immigrants over the coming days. After shocking the conscience of the nation as we witnessed the grievous and continuing harm to children separated from their parents, the Trump Administration is apparently intent on recklessly tearing more parents from children.
Much has been written – although perhaps not nearly enough – about the cruel, decrepit, and even dangerous conditions inside migrant detention camps along the southern U.S. border. Now, however, details are emerging about conditions in migrant camps on the other side of the border – conditions exacerbated by the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. And it is a disturbing picture.
It is summer time for schoolchildren, and the living is easy – unless you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. A new report released Wednesday by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) found that far too many children across the country are missing out on the nutrition they need when the regular school year ends, and with it, the National School Lunch Program and a sister program that serves breakfasts.
The Trump Administration wants to rip apart tens of thousands of families. Through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), it has proposed prohibiting mixed-status families from receiving housing assistance. Mixed-status families are families that include both members who are eligible and ineligible for housing assistance based on their immigration status.
