| 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. If you would like to receive the Human Needs Report by email, send an message to Adam Hughes with "subscibe Human Needs Report" in the subject line. -
Senate Budget Committee Marks Up Spending Blueprint for FY05: Programs for Low-Income Families are on Chopping Block
The Senate Budget Committee began marking up a fiscal year 2005 budget resolution yesterday that will severely restrict spending for many programs that serve low-income families. The budget proposed by Committee Chairman Don Nickles (R-OK) would cap discretionary spending (spending that is appropriated annually) at $814 billion - $9 billion below the level proposed by the President. The Senate budget resolution would provide virtually no increase in non-defense, non homeland security programs that are appropriated on an annual basis - and even trims $2 billion from the President's level. Many federal programs serving low-income families - such as job training, certain nutrition programs, child care, housing, and child welfare programs and Head Start - fall unde this category of spending. At the same time, the budget makes room for $144 billion in more tax cuts over the next five years.
(More >) - CHN Releases Analysis of President's Budget
As part of a new federal budget campaign, CHN has compiled an analysis of how the President's proposed FY 2005 budget will affect programs and services for low-income people.Called The President's Fiscal Year 2005 Budget: Slamming the Door Shut on Opportunity for All Americans, the report includes an overview and specific analyses of over two dozen programs provided by CHN member organizations. It sounds the alarm about reductions in vital services proposed for FY 2005 that could affect millions of low-income people. The analysis also reveals massive cuts proposed through 2009 - reductions that are not specified in the 2,500-page budget document submitted by the Bush Administration but that were made available to Congressional budget staff. Many popular and important services - including nutrition aid for infants, toddlers, and pregnant women (WIC), education for disadvantaged children (Title I), and energy assistance for low-income households (LIHEAP) - show increases from 2004 to 2005 (in the budget's published pages), but start to decline in 2006 and beyond.
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TANF Extension Bill Introduced in House: Threatens a Massive Increase in Work With No Resources
With the March 31 deadline for reauthorizing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) looming, Chairman Wally Herger (R-CA) of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources introduced a bill last week to extend the program through June 30. TANF has been operating on temporary extensions since 2002. Until now, each extension was a straightforward continuation of current law and funding. This time, the extension proposed by Chairman Herger (in H.R. 3848) would drastically increase the work participation rates states must meet to avoid federal penalties. The legislation would phase out a credit used by states to satisfy federal work participation rates. Under current law, states get credit for reducing their TANF caseloads below the levels they were just before TANF's 1996 enactment. If a state's caseload dropped 30 percent, the state could knock 30 percentage points off the proportion of the caseload that had to be engaged in work. H.R. 3848 would require states to meet a much more difficult standard - they would have to reduce their caseloads below a much more recent year in order to qualify for the caseload reduction credit. Since the recession began in March 2001 through September 2003 (the most recent data available), caseloads rose in 28 states; only a few states had substantial reductions during that period. In FY 2006, the base year for caseload comparisons would be FY 2001.
(More >) - Transportation Reauthorization Bill Moves in Senate
SAFETEA Includes Important Provisions for Low-Income People
A massive transportation bill that includes important provisions for low-income people is moving through Congress this spring. On February 12, the Senate approved S. 1072, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA) by a 76-21 vote. Several provisions in the bill will help low-income and other vulnerable populations and should be included in the final version.
(More >) - Majority Of Senators Support Restoration Of TEUC
Vote on Cantwell Amendment Fails, But Sends a Strong Message
On February 26, 2004, the Senate voted 58-39 for an amendment proposed by Maria Cantwell (D-WA) that would restore the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) for six months (S. 2006). The amendment - which needed 60 votes to pass - which would have restored the TEUC program retroactive to December 21, 2003, when it expired. The Cantwell amendment which was attached to gun liability legislation, received bi-partisan support with 12 Republicans voting for it. Despite the loss, this vote sends a strong message to Republican leadership in both chambers that unemployment benefits need to be restored, and quickly. Since the end of last year, 90,000 workers a week have lost their federal benefits.
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