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.

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.

Articles from March 12, 2004

• Senate Approves Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Resolution
  In the early morning hours of Friday, March 12, the Senate approved a $2.4 trillion budget plan for next fiscal year by a vote of 51 to 45. The resolution provides virtually no new money for domestic discretionary programs - that is, non-defense, non-homeland security programs that must be appropriated each year. Many federal programs serving moderate and low-income families - such as job training, child care, housing, child welfare programs and Head Start - fall into this category of spending. The lack of new money means that spending for most services for needy families is held below the level of inflation.
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• House Budget Committee Begins to Work on Budget Resolution
  The House Budget Committee began marking up a budget resolution on Thursday, March 12, but was unable to complete work when fiscal conservatives on the committee demanded that legislation to establish new budget rules move alongside any budget resolution. The Committee will continue its work on March 17. House leadership had hoped to put a budget resolution on the floor of the House next week, but that will be put off until the committee finishes its work.
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• Child Nutrition Reauthorization Moves through House Committee
  On March 10 the House Education and Workforce Committee uanimously approved H.R. 3873, the "Child Nutrition Improvement and Integrity Act." The bill, sponsored by the Subcommittee on Education Reform Chairman Michael N. Castle (R-DE), reauthorizes and improves provisions of School Lunch, School Breakfast and Summer Food child nutrition programs through 2008.
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• ACORN: DC Wins $1 Million for Low-income Heating and Energy Assistance
  With Federal LIHEAP dollars for District families exhausted, in recent weeks DC ACORN members have been organizing a series of actions to demand that Mayor Anthony Williams allocate funds from the District's "rainy day fund" to help low-income families keep their heat and electricity on. In response, ACORN members won a March 5 meeting with City Administrator Robert Bobb and representatives from the Mayor's office where Bobb committed $1 million in funds to the DC Energy Office, the agency that manages LIHEAP dollars in the District, to help thousands of low-income DC residents pay their utilities bills.
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