Monthly Archives: October 2005
- CHN: Senate Approves Labor-HHS-Education Spending Bill
By a vote of 94 to 3 the Senate approved a bill to fund the Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services on Thursday, October 27. The bill provides a total of $142.5 billion in discretionary (annually appropriated) funding for such wide-ranging programs as K-12 education, education for children with disabilities, child care, Read More »
- CHN: Senate Budget Committee Approves nearly $40 Billion in Cuts to Entitlement Programs
On Thursday, October 27, the Senate Budget committee approved a bill that cuts a net $39.1 billion from entitlement programs over the next five years. Next week the Senate will debate and vote on the measure that cuts Medicaid, Medicare, agriculture subsidies, student loans, pensions and other entitlement spending. There are special debating procedures for Read More »
Posted in Disabilities, Health, Income Support, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Services, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Comments Off - CHN: House Committees Slash Medicaid, Child Support, SSI, and Foster Care; Reduce Planned Increases for Child Care, Welfare Programs
The House launched an unprecedented attack on services that aid low-income families and vulnerable people this week, passing several bills to cut Medicaid, Food Stamps, foster care, child support collections, student aid and Supplemental Security Income for poor elderly and disabled. Congress made the cuts in order to pay for $106 billion in new tax Read More »
- CHN: House Passes GSE Bill With Provision Designed to Reduce Voting Among the Poor
The House of Representatives on Wednesday, October 26 passed legislation reforming the regulation of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill created an affordable housing fund long sought by advocates — along with a provision that will reduce political participation by low-income people. Called the “nonprofit gag provision” by housing advocates, the Read More »
Posted in Housing and Homelessness Comments Off - CHN: White House Forced to Back Down on Davis-Bacon Wage Protections
This week the Bush administration reinstated a rule requiring contractors of the federal government to pay prevailing local wages to its employees. The rule, mandated by the Davis-Bacon Act enacted over 70 years ago, was suspended in Gulf Coast states after Hurricane Katrina when the administration claimed that recovery and reconstruction would be more efficient Read More »
Posted in Labor and Employment Comments Off - CHN: Final Conference Agreement on WIC Spending Approved In House
The House of Representatives on October 28 adopted the agriculture appropriations conference report by a vote of 318-63. This came a day after the House and Senate conferees reported the bill, which includes $17.1 billion in discretionary spending (money that Congress has to approve each year). The bill appropriates $5.3 billion for the Special Supplemental Read More »
Posted in Child Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Comments Off - CHN: Congress Enacts Legislation to Extend Medicare Premium Subsidies and Transitional Medicaid; Also Shores Up Unemployment Funds for Gulf States
Nearly a month after allowing the subsidy for Medicare Part B premiums for low-income seniors to expire, Congress enacted Public Law 109-91, which extends the program through September 2007. The Qualifying Individual program (QI) uses Medicaid funds to pay the Medicare Part B premiums of seniors with limited assets and incomes between 120 – 135 Read More »
Posted in Health, Medicaid, Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Unemployment Insurance Comments Off - CHN: Low-Income Programs Threatened with Across-the-Board Cuts
Congress is threatening nearly every program funded annually by the federal government – from education to biomedical research, workforce training, Head Start, housing, WIC and many others – with an across the board cut that may be between 2 and 4 percent. Not content with cutting mandatory programs such as Medicaid and Food Stamps by Read More »
- CHN: House Presses for Even Larger Cuts to Low-Income Services
In the coming weeks, the House of Representatives will be pushing a new plan to cut at least $50 billion – and possibly more – from services that mostly help low-income and vulnerable people. Less than two months ago hurricane Katrina swept the Gulf Coast, revealing the calamitous consequences of failing to invest in communities Read More »
Posted in Food and Nutrition, Health, Health Care Reform, Income Support, Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, Social Services, Tax Policy, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Unemployment Insurance Comments Off - CHN: Victims of Katrina Still Waiting for Medicaid Help
While thousands of destitute Katrina survivors are reportedly being turned away from Medicaid, the White House has refused to support the bipartisan Emergency Health Care Relief Act (S. 1716) designed to provide federally funded health care to those affected by the disaster. The Administration continues to promote the existing process through which states can apply Read More »
Posted in Health, Health Care Reform, Medicaid Comments Off
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