Editor’s note: The following letter, authored by CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein, was sent to all members of the U.S. House on Thursday, June 21: Dear Representative: On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I write to urge you to vote NO on the two bills related to immigration…
Archives: Voices
The Human Needs Report: Immigration bills in the House, a better bill for SNAP, FY19 spending, and more
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on immigration bills in the House, advocates fighting to stop family separations at the border, a better bill for SNAP, a spending cuts package, and FY19 spending work. Click here for a PDF version. Senate to Take up…
Gas prices are way too high. Here’s what we can do about it
Editor’s note: This piece was originally published by CNN on June 15. Americans now pay around $2.87 for a gallon of gas. That’s 46 cents more than last year’s average. And if trends continue, by August, the cost of gasoline may go up another five cents. As a result, the average family…
Children torn from their parents: vile federal actions we must reject
Here at the Coalition on Human Needs, we have been sharing information about the dreadful impact of the Trump Administration’s actions to take children from their parents if they cross the border illegally, even denying those who would seek asylum their legal right to do so. This powerful video, circulated by…
This is not America as we know it
Hundreds of activists and community organizers from across the United States rallied in Washington, D.C. Wednesday to protest the Trump Administration’s new policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at U.S. borders. Among the speakers was Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, who is believed to be the only member of…
‘Puerto Rico wasn’t destroyed by Hurricane Maria. Puerto Rico was destroyed decades and decades ago.’
Puerto Rico’s battered infrastructure has made it more difficult to deliver social services to those most in need, including impoverished women who are at risk of domestic violence and sexual assault. That’s the finding of Vilma González-Castro, a women’s rights and domestic violence activist who has worked to try to…
How to break a Census
Editor’s note: The following blog post is authored by CHN intern Paige Brigham, a rising senior at Allegheny College. The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice held a hearing Friday about the decision to include a question on citizenship in the 2020 Census. Secretary of Commerce…
Save the date! CHN Human Needs Hero Reception July 19th
It’s been a roller coaster of a year and you’ve ridden with us the entire way. Together we’ve fought to defend important human needs programs, from SNAP to affordable housing to health care. And we’ve stood with immigrants and their families, women teaching us to resist and persist, young people…
Fact of the Week: Three-Quarters of states still have higher levels of need than before the Great Recession
Residents in 37 states and the District of Columbia were still experiencing higher levels of need in 2017 than they were in 2007, before the Great Recession. This is one of the findings in the latest edition of the Human Needs Index (HNI), a multidimensional measure of poverty conducted by…
Not in Our Name
When a mother and child flee to an entry point along the U.S. border, seeking asylum from violence in their home country, they have endured threats to their lives. The U.S. has every right to investigate their claims, but it has long done so in accordance with national and international…
As hurricane season begins, a new death toll in Puerto Rico. And an island woefully unprepared for what may come.
4,645. And counting. That’s the new number of estimated deaths of U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico directly or indirectly linked to Hurricane Maria, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The new estimate is more than 70 times the official death toll of 64….
Canadian-style child benefit would cut U.S. child poverty by more than half
Editor’s note: This piece was written by Arloc Sherman, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). It was originally published on CBPP’s blog, Off the Charts, on May 24. Lawmakers need not look far to find ways to help struggling families with children raise their living…