Coalition on Human Needs: We will continue to oppose blank check funding and lawless actions by ICE and Border Patrol
June 10, 2026
The Right’s cure for poverty: hard work and father figures
Greg Kaufmann,
June 21, 2019
On Tuesday, at a House Budget Committee hearing entitled “Poverty in America: Economic Realities of Struggling Families,” 10 Republican congressmen participated—all men, all white. Ohio's Bill Johnson challenged the testimony of two of the hearing’s witnesses, the Reverend Drs. William Barber II and Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, who’d called on the committee to tackle poverty as a moral imperative. “I been a Christian since I was 10 years old,” Johnson responded. “I don’t find anywhere in the scripture where Jesus said that it was Caesar’s job to feed the poor, and to clothe the widows, and take care of the orphans. It’s the church’s responsibility, the community’s responsibility, your neighbor’s responsibility, it’s your responsibility to do those things.”
An international perspective: hunger and poverty are dire issues, whether in the U.S. or at home
Rebekah Kim Jong,
June 21, 2019
Three years ago, in August 2016, I set foot on American soil for the first time. I was ecstatic to finally experience and see what life in the richest hegemonic nation would look like. As I embarked upon my journey of the so-called “American Dream,” I eagerly counted down the days to finally acquire a college education, studying International Relations in the nation I believed was the center of all global affairs. Growing up in the Philippines, a developing economy, I saw the grim reality of how poverty can strike countless homes, leaving families and children in hungry despair.
At the Poor People’s Campaign, nine presidential candidates discussed poverty
David Elliot,
June 20, 2019
Earlier this week, something happened on a stage at Trinity Washington University that doesn’t happen nearly often enough. Nine presidential candidates gathered to discuss how to best fight poverty in the United States. That might not sound all that amazing, but consider that in the 2016 presidential election, not one of the 26 debates was dedicated to the subject of poverty. And in 2012, if you watched the four general election debates between President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney, you did not hear a single question about the state of poverty in our country.
The latest Human Needs Report: Spending update, disaster aid passes, victory for Dreamers, and more
Leo Nguyen,
June 17, 2019
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on Congress's spending work, long-overdue disaster aid, a step forward for Dreamers, tax credits for working families, and more.
Back pay for federal contractors set to advance
David Elliot,
June 14, 2019
Last January, in the midst of the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, Voices for Human Needs and a number of other media outlets detailed the plight of federal contractors. Unlike government employees, who usually receive their pay retroactively in the event of a shutdown, federal contractors are left out in the cold, without compensation. These contractors include low-income workers such as janitors, security guards and cooks. But earlier this week, the House Appropriations Committee announced that an upcoming spending package will include back pay for an estimated 580,000 federal contractors.
