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 February 25, 2005

• Deep Cuts in the President's Budget; Committees Ready to Act
  The President submitted a budget on February 7 that contained deep cuts to human needs spending, more tax cuts, and proposed changes to the budget process that will make it more difficult for Congress to increase spending for services in the future.
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• Privatization Message Falls Flat
  Following on the President's tour of key states to promote the partial privatization of Social Security, several of his allies in Congress spent the February recess in their districts meeting with constituents to discuss the future of the program. USAction, the Campaign for America's Future and other organizations organized rallies and events to demonstrate nationwide support for the Social Security program as it currently exists, and members of Congress found their constituents cool to any proposals that would fundamentally restructure the program.
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• TANF Bill Moving
  In anticipation of an especially difficult budget season, Republican and Democratic staffers in the Senate have been meeting regularly to explore common ground for moving a bill that would reauthorize the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF). Both sides say they do not want TANF to be reauthorized as part of a possible reconciliation bill that would cut mandatory programs under the Senate Finance Committee's jurisdiction. In pushing the bill forward, both sides hope to stay one step ahead of any possible budget cuts and to keep better control of policy changes in a reauthorization bill.
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