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 May 7, 2004

• Senate Votes to Overturn Labor Department's Revised Overtime Pay Proposal
  Democrats and organized labor scored a victory against the Bush Administration on Tuesday, voting to bar the Department of Labor from implementing its new overtime pay provisions. By a vote of 52 to 47, the Senate adopted an amendment to a bill to cut corporate taxes (S 1637) that would block the Labor Department's final rule restructuring the overtime pay rules for most white-collar workers. The amendment offered by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) to maintain overtime rights for American workers won support from all Democrats but Zell Miller (GA) and five Republicans: Lisa Murkowski (AK); Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO); Lincoln Chafee (RI); Olympia J. Snowe (ME); and Arlen Specter (PA).
  (More >)

• Unemployment Benefits Extension Amendment Reappears on Senate Floor
  Unemployment benefits extension returned to center stage in the Senate again this week. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) is continuing to advocate for an extension of the federal Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) Program. Cantwell, along with other Democrats, is attempting to secure a vote on an amendment to a corporate tax break bill (S 1637). The amendment would provide an additional 13 weeks of federal unemployment benefits for people who have used up the standard 26 weeks of state aid. Cantwell has attempted to get a vote on this amendment several times. On February 26, 2004 the Senate voted 58-39 in favor of the Cantwell amendment, only 2 votes short of the necessary 60 to pass. Then in March she proposed the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 2004 (S 2250), which still has not been voted on. The corporate tax bill is one of the few vehicles available to move the unemployment insurance bill to the Senate floor. (More >)

• Senate Passes Bill to Help Families With Disabled Children Receive Medicaid
  Unemployment benefits extension returned to center stage in the Senate again this week. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) is continuing to advocate for an extension of the federal Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) Program. Cantwell, along with other Democrats, is attempting to secure a vote on an amendment to a corporate tax break bill (S 1637). The amendment would provide an additional 13 weeks of federal unemployment benefits for people who have used up the standard 26 weeks of state aid. Cantwell has attempted to get a vote on this amendment several times. On February 26, 2004 the Senate voted 58-39 in favor of the Cantwell amendment, only 2 votes short of the necessary 60 to pass. Then in March she proposed the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 2004 (S 2250), which still has not been voted on. The corporate tax bill is one of the few vehicles available to move the unemployment insurance bill to the Senate floor.(More >)

• Why No Budget Resolution This Year is Not Such a Bad Idea
  On Thursday, May 6 the Senate passed by unanimous consent a bill that will help middle-income families whose children have disabilities to buy Medicaid coverage to help pay for the health care for their children. The Family Opportunity Act (S 622), sponsored by Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Max Baucus (D-MT), allows families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty line ($47,125 for a family of four) to purchase Medicaid coverage on a sliding scale.
  (More >)

• Tax Cutting Agenda Moves Forward
  Six weeks after the House passed its budget resolution for fiscal year 2005 (and eight weeks after the Senate passed its version), House and Senate negotiators have been unable to resolve differences between the two plans (H Con Res 393 and S Con Res 95). As reported in the April 23 Human Needs Report, a handful of Republican Senators are bucking their party leadership and siding with Senate Democrats to insist the budget deal include a pay-as-you-go rule, requiring Congress to pay for new tax cuts and new spending by either cutting elsewhere in the budget or by raising revenues.
  (More >)