Feature: Letters to Congress

National Group Sign-On Letter Urges Congress to Quickly Enact No Less Than American Rescue Plan
February 5, 2021

On February 4th, over 100 national organizations including the Coalition on Human Needs called on the United States Congress to enact swiftly no less than what is called for in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. Without speedy and comprehensive action, "...families that could have managed will be pushed into poverty and deaths that could have been avoided due to the pandemic will occur."

CHN letter to all U.S. Senators demands COVID-19 relief
September 25, 2020

CHN on Friday, Sept. 25 sent a letter to all 100 U.S. Senators demanding COVID-19 relief. It reads in part, "The pandemic has imperiled your constituents’ economic well-being and their health. COVID-19 cases are again rising, and as we enter the colder months, the threat will increase. The moratorium on evictions expires at the end of the year. If you leave now without acting, millions of people, unable to come up with one or more months of unpaid rent, will face eviction."

CHN’s letter to all members of the U.S. Senate urging Senators to extend U.S. Census reporting deadlines
August 10, 2020

CHN's letter to all members of the U.S. Senate urging Senators to extend statutory reporting deadlines for apportionment and redistricting data for the 2020 Census to April 30, 2021, extend the deadline to transmit state population totals to that date, prohibit the Bureau and the President from sending the relevant data to the Congress in advance of those deadlines, and to allocate $400 million to address Census Bureau operational challenges.

MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Protecting Immigrant Families: Trump’s Public Charge Proposal is Already Hurting Immigrant Families
April 24, 2019

The proposed changes to public charge policy in the U.S. are not final, but they are already causing significant harm. Fear and confusion - known as the chilling effect - are causing people to disenroll from programs or forgo benefits to which they are eligible. The impact is far-reaching, given that one in four children in the U.S. has at least one foreign-born parent. A Manatt Health analysis estimates that as many as 26 million people and their families could be dissuaded from using public benefits under the proposed rule change.

Puerto Rico’s Medicaid Program Needs an Ongoing Commitment of Federal Funds
April 22, 2019

Some 1.4 million people living in Puerto Rico — about 44 percent of its population — have incomes below the poverty line, and almost half of the Commonwealth’s residents receive health coverage through Medicaid. But temporary federal funding that supplements Puerto Rico’s inadequate federal Medicaid block grant will expire soon, putting health care coverage at risk for hundreds of thousands of Commonwealth residents.

Sample Comments: 2019 CFPB Underwriting Requirement NPRM
April 19, 2019

The CFPB is trying to gut a rule that protects consumers from predatory payday and car lenders: The “underwriting provision” which protects consumers against predatory payday lenders. Without this protection, greedy lenders can force borrowers to take out multiple loans, some averaging over 350 percent interest, which they can’t fully pay back. This way consumers are trapped in debt far more costly than the original loan. Fortunately, we can take action! Use CHN’s commenting portal here.