The Build Back Better edition. COVID-19 cases are down and more people are working. But all is not well in America. Staggering numbers remain out of work and now there is emerging evidence, that as Black and brown communities lag behind in vaccinations, COVID-19 could become a disease that overwhelmingly impacts communities of color. Vaccinations – which reached a peak of nearly two million per day in April – have slipped under 400,000 a day, endangering President Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of the country vaccinated by the 4th of July. Fewer than one in four Black Americans have received their first shot. 

Calendar year 2021 is not even half over – yet we already know that it will set a modern-day record for the number of voter suppression laws passed by state legislatures and enacted into law in one year. Between January 1 and May 14 of this year, 14 states enacted 22 new laws that restrict access to the vote. That breaks a record set in 2011, when – by October of that year – 19 restrictive laws were passed in 14 states. 

President Biden’s budget is responsive to our needs and responsible to our future.  Instead of ignoring government’s failure for years to maintain and improve the basic building blocks of our economic security, the budget makes investments our nation badly needs.

CHN just released a special edition of the Human Needs Report focusing on President Biden’s FY22 budget request. Read on for an overview of the request and details from select government departments that most directly impact people with low incomes.