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 June 6, 2003

• Senate Passes Bill To Change Inequalities In Child Tax Credit
  The Senate passed a bill on Thursday, June 5 to accelerate an increase in the child tax credit for low-income families that had been left out of the recent tax cut legislation signed by President Bush on May 28. The Senate bill (HR 1308) was based on legislation co-sponsored by Senators Lincoln (D-AR) and Snowe (R-ME) and a majority of Senators. It would revise the recently passed tax law by allowing an additional 12 million children of poor, working families (including 1 million children in military families, either active duty or veterans) to receive an average of $150 more under the child tax credit starting in 2003. The new tax law accelerates an already-scheduled increase in the child tax credit to a maximum of $1,000 so that it takes effect in 2003 and 2004. Parents who claimed credits in 2002 will receive advance payments this summer of up to $400 to reflect the increase; but no increase would have been available to families with earnings so low they owe little or no federal income taxes under the new law. The Senate bill corrects this by speeding up an increase for low-income families that would otherwise have taken effect in 2005. In order to ensure the votes needed for passage, proponents of the increase for low-income families agreed also to increase the income level at which the credit begins to phase down for married filers from $110,000 to $115,000 in 2008 and up to $150,000 in 2010. The overall cost of the bill - $10 billion - will be offset by extending customs user fees set to expire this year.
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• Senate Unveils Medicare Drug Plan
  On Thursday, June 5, Senators released plans for a prescription drug plan to provide coverage to the elderly through a combination of the government-run Medicare health program and private health plans. The details of the plan were enthusiastically announced by Senators Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Finance committee, and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), the committee's ranking Democrat.
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• GOP Leaders Fail To Muster Necessary Votes For Comp Time Bill
  On Wednesday evening, June 4, GOP Leaders pulled legislation from the House floor agenda to allow compensatory time to substitute for overtime pay after admitting that they lacked sufficient support for passage. The Family Time Flexibility Act (HR 1119), which would allow companies to offer employees one and a half hours of compensatory time for every hour of overtime worked, was removed from the House schedule for Thursday morning.
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