CHN Urges Members of the House of Representatives to Vote NO on the Reconciliation Proposal
May 21, 2025
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship, April 28, 2023
CHN Staff,
April 28, 2023
The debt ceiling hostage edition. America is being held hostage. House Republicans this week passed a measure that would cause permanent, lasting damage to a wide array of critical human needs programs – everything from health care to child care to housing to nutrition assistance to climate change. In passing this legislation, which will not advance in the Senate in its current form, House Republicans are teetering on the precipice of default on the national debt, which would cost millions of jobs and almost immediately plunge the nation – and perhaps the world – into a recession.
War on the poor: Advocates express fury over Congressional debt ceiling, spending cuts proposal
David Elliot,
April 26, 2023
Human needs advocates, including people of faith, rallied this week against a House measure that would severely cut spending for critical domestic programs in exchange for raising the nation’s debt ceiling. The bill passed narrowly (217-215), but it is strongly opposed in the Senate and by President Biden. The advocates at Wednesday’s event were well aware that their fight must continue.
High energy bills force Americans to choose between paying utilities, rent, or even food
David Elliot,
April 21, 2023
More Americans are behind on their utility bills than at any point since the 2009 Great Recession, a new report has found. Fueled by dramatic spikes in the cost of energy and by the expiration of pandemic aid programs, Americans owed $17.8 billion on their utility bills as of the end of January 2023. That’s up from $15.9 billion in January 2022, according to the report, released this week by the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA).
Medicaid cutoffs: An American horror story
CHN Staff,
April 21, 2023
The biggest threat to Americans today isn’t from a foreign power. It’s from a long-running war on the poor by out of touch politicians and their Wall Street backers. The latest attack on working Americans even has a name: “The Unwinding.” If that sounds like the title of a horror movie to you, you’re not far off. Starting this April, state governments and welfare offices began cutting off Medicaid coverage from some 15 million people.
Don’t shred the safety net — expand it.
CHN Staff,
April 20, 2023
Most of us rely on some cash assistance to get by at some point, whether we realize it or not. For wealthy people, that might include a family trust or any number of elaborate tax breaks. For middle-income people, it might come in the form of a mortgage interest deduction on their taxes, an inheritance, or a grandparent’s contribution to a college fund. But for many working people, that kind of help can only come from public programs — the kind that are now under threat from conservatives in Congress.
