The U.S. Senate will be finishing up today without having taken up a new COVID-19 relief bill. It will be out until July 20. In the meantime, most states are starting up a new fiscal year as of July 1, with plummeting revenues and no assurance that the federal government will provide aid to prevent service cuts and state and local government worker layoffs. From February through June, there have already been 1.5 million state and local worker layoffs, out of 15 million public sector workers. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reminded the Senate this week that the economic downturn would be prolonged, and that the “path forward will also depend on the policy actions taken at all levels of government to provide relief and to support the recovery for as long as needed.”

The pain Black people are feeling — that I am feeling — is not about one incidence of police violence and murder or even the highly visible state-violence we’ve witnessed over the past decade. It is not about one Amy Cooper or Starbucks incident. It is layers and layers of connected events that dehumanize Black people from public lynchings to the discrimination and microaggessions that happen in school, at work, while shopping, and while seeking help. It is quite literally death by a thousand cuts. Racism is killing us.

The moral fabric of a nation is determined by how well it provides for the poor in its midst. The federal budget is a moral document. To become a just society certain principles much underlie how we allocate our federal resources. The common good demands the right of all to have their basic human needs met. The health pandemic we are experiencing lays bare for all to see the deep economic and racial disparities ingrained in our system. Today in this wealthy nation, there are 140 million poor and low-income people.  

CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on Congress’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, work on FY21 spending bills and criminal justice reform, Supreme Court decisions, and more.