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, 21 2004

• Budget Conference Agreement Clears House Floor, But Stalls in Senate
  By a surprisingly close vote of 216 to 213, the House approved a final fiscal year 2005 budget resolution late on Wednesday, May 19. The vote came nearly two months after the House and Senate approved separate budget resolutions and after negotiators struggled to find compromise. Despite the House adoption, continued opposition to the deal by key Senate moderates forced the Senate leadership to postpone the budget vote until after the Memorial Day recess. (More >)

• House Passes Child Tax Credit Legislation
  The House continued its weekly tax cut drive when it agreed to a 10-year $228 billion child tax credit bill (HR 4359) on Thursday, May 19. (Since the cost of the credit will come out of borrowed money, adding the interest payments brings the total to $279 billion.) The bill makes permanent the $1,000 tax credit per child first enacted in 2001, but also makes families with much higher incomes newly eligible. Adding these families comes with a $69 billion price tag ($87 billion counting the added interest payments), or more than 30 percent of the total. The bill passed by a 271-139 vote. (More >)

• Senate Reauthorizes Disability Education Bill
  On Thursday, May 13, the Senate passed HR 1350, a bill to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), by a 94 to 3 vote. IDEA is a federal law that guarantees access to a free public education in the “least restrictive environment” to the nation’s 6.5 million students with disabilities and provides federal assistance to school districts to carry out this promise. This bill reauthorizes funding for IDEA through FY 2009. (More >)

• Senate Approves Child Nutrition Bill
  On Wednesday, May 19, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry approved a bill to reauthorize and moderately expand national child nutrition programs, including school breakfast, lunch, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programs. The House passed a similar bill (HR 3873) on March 24 with strong bipartisan support. (More >)