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 23, 2003

• Medicare Overhaul Continues In Congress
  Over the last two weeks, both the House and Senate have been working on overhauling the federal Medicare program, and it is likely both chambers will pass legislation next week before the upcoming July recess. The proposals in both chambers have garnered considerable criticism, but Congressional leaders are optimistic about passage of a drug benefit package this year. If differences between the House and Senate versions can be reconciled, it would represent the most significant expansion of Medicare since the program's inception in 1965.
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• Tax Credit For Low-Income Children Stymied
  After it was widely reported that there were nearly 12 million children in low-income working families who were excluded partly or entirely from receiving the increase in the child tax credit enacted in May, the Senate on June 5 approved a bill to extend help to them, and also to start phasing out eligibility for the credit at $150,000 for married couples (up from $110,000 under current law). Total cost of the Senate's bill: $10 billion, paid for by extending customs user fees that would otherwise have expired.
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• House Subcommittee Passes Agriculture Appropriations Bill
  The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved $17 billion in FY 2004 agriculture spending on June 17th, nearly $1 billion less than the amount appropriated in FY 2003, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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• Head Start Reauthorization Passes House Committee
  On Wednesday, June 18, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed HR 2210, "The School Readiness Act of 2003" to reauthorize the Head Start program. The bill passed on a straight party-line vote (27 - 20) after heated partisan debate over the broad changes to the historically successful Head Start program.
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