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 May 20, 2005

• Reconciliation Instructions Put Human Needs Programs at Risk
  Armed with the budget blueprint they approved on April 28, members of Congress are beginning to contemplate how to meet the blueprint's requirements to cut spending on low-income programs.
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• Congress Ponders Multiple Tax Cuts
  Despite a record-high federal deficit, Congress may be contemplating a collection of tax cuts this year, many of which are expected to benefit the well-off. The budget resolution approved on April 28 makes room for $100 billion in tax cuts over five years, but does not specify which taxes shall be cut.
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• Administration-Appointed Commission to Draw Plans for Cutting $10 Billion From Medicaid
  After promising Congressional allies of Medicaid that a commission would be formed to make sound policy recommendations for the program, the Bush Administration has now made clear its intention to appoint all the voting members of the commission on its own.
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• Head Start Bill Moves in House - Without Block Grant
  A bill that reauthorizes Head Start cleared a key House committee on Wednesday, May 18 with bipartisan support.
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• Senate HELP Committee Approves Workforce Training Bill
  The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted unanimously to report S. 1021, a bill reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998. The bill differs from the controversial version passed out of the House of Representatives, H.R. 27, in two key ways.
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• Senate at the Brink of Nuclear Option
  Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) continued down the path of nuclear meltdown in the Senate Wednesday by calling up the nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla R. Owen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
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• President Proposes Benefit Cuts That are Not Progressive; Plans' Architect Turns Against Private Accounts
  While weathering criticisms of his "progressive" proposal, the President this week felt a new blow to his campaign: Robert Pozen, the architect of "progressive price indexing" has turned against the other part of the President's proposal -- private accounts using money diverted from Social Security.
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• Minimum Wage Bill Introduced
  The minimum wage has remained at $5.15 an hour for the past eight years. During this period, inflation has eaten away nearly one-sixth of the minimum wage's buying power. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representative George Miller (D-CA) are again attempting to correct this slide by introducing legislation to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over two years.
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