Human Needs Report

The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. It is published every other week while Congress is in session.

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Articles from October 24, 2003

• Medicare Conferees Continue to Crawl Towards Agreement
  House and Senate negotiators are inching closer to an agreement on a bill that would add prescription drug benefits for more than 40 million elderly and disabled people in the Medicare program. This week conferees announced more areas of agreement and some staff said a final bill might be released within a week or two. However, 41 senators told President Bush yesterday the conference agreement is in jeopardy and the final conference bill would have to look more like the Senate bill than it currently does to get their support. It is not certain when - or even if - a final compromise can be reached.
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• Federal Unemployment Benefits Program Will Expire December 31 Without Extension
  While Congressional leaders are predicting an adjournment date of November 7 - a target that appears increasingly unlikely - another important deadline is looming for America's unemployed workers. Before adjournment Congress must act to extend federal unemployment benefits, which are set to expire on December 31, 2003.
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• Child Nutrition Reauthorization Delayed in Senate
  The Senate Agriculture Committee announced last week that it will delay reauthorization of child nutrition programs until early next year. The Senate will now have to extend child nutrition programs, which are set to expire on October 30. The Senate's delay follows similar action in the House, which recently voted to extend the programs for an additional six months.
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• Senate Introduces Head Start Legislation Without State Block Grant Pilot
  On the evening of Wednesday, October 22, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee released its bipartisan Head Start reauthorization bill. Reauthorization of the landmark federal preschool program has been a contentious one in Congress this year largely due to lawmakers' partisan disagreement over whether to hand authority for the programs to the states. The House Republican bill (HR 2210), passed on July 24 by one vote and included a block grant pilot project to funnel federal Head Start funding through states, taking away local control, increasing state responsibilities without additional funding, and jeopardizing quality controls.
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