Editor’s note: CHN sent the letter below to the all members of the U.S. Senate opposing the House-passed partisan CR on September 30, 2025. 

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I strongly urge you to vote NO on H.R. 5371, the House’s partisan Continuing Resolution expected on the Senate floor again this week – and any spending bill, whether short-term or a full appropriations package, that does not rein in skyrocketing health costs by including provisions to extend the enhanced ACA premium tax credits and protect vital health programs. Congress must also protect Congressionally approved funds from being frozen or rescinded by the Trump administration by including enforceable instructions on how Congressionally approved funding must be spent, along with extending expiring funding to stop efforts to “run out the clock.” Instead, please work with colleagues and Leadership to come together on a bipartisan basis to avert a shutdown by addressing these issues.

The Coalition on Human Needs is made up of human service providers, faith groups, policy experts, and civil rights, labor, and other organizations concerned with meeting the needs of people with low incomes.  Our members know that federal funding enacted through bipartisan appropriations bills is critical to everyone, from people with disabilities to children to the elderly, and impacts communities across the country. Federal appropriations are essential resources for community priorities nationwide,  including access to affordable housing, public education, funding for nutrition programs such as WIC and Older Americans Act programs, care for children and adults, taxpayers looking for assistance from the IRS, and staffing to help Social Security beneficiaries. Typically, Congress appropriates funds for these and many other services through a lengthy bipartisan process.

Through our networks of national organizations and thousands of local and state groups, we are hearing about and from people in communities across the country who are being harmed by the administration’s unilateral attacks on access to food assistance, housing programs, early childhood services and funding for public schools, afterschool programs, mental health services, and more.  The Trump administration has cancelled or frozen more than $410 billion in funding for programs, including over $1 billion in substance use and mental health treatment, $250 million for school-based mental health grants (impacting over 200 programs in 30 states), $500 million from the Emergency Food Assistance Program, $1.7 billion from programs that help communities transition to clean energy, $311 million to develop preschool programs, and $70 million from legal services that help unaccompanied migrant children. And it is worth noting these funding freezes or cancellations come on top of historic cuts to basic needs programs included in this summer’s budget package.

Instead of negotiating in a bipartisan manner to stop the Administration’s cancellations of Congressionally approved spending, we have been frustrated that many policymakers have allowed the Administration to unilaterally cancel funding or pass a rescissions package with a simple majority in the Senate, undoing bipartisan compromise to enact appropriations bills. Some policymakers from both sides of the aisle have spoken out about this, but we urge Congress to collectively assert their role and recognize that a deal is a deal – without the assurance that bipartisan spending legislation is adhered to, Congress is effectively giving up its Constitutional power of the purse. Congress must include enforceable instructions (similar to the guardrails in S.2882) on how congressionally approved funding must be spent in any spending package, along with extending expiring funding to stop efforts to “run out the clock”, in any and all spending packages.  

From our partners and networks across the country, every day we hear concerns expressed about rising costs of basic needs, including health care. While making tax provisions that largely benefited the wealthy and large businesses permanent in this summer’s budget package, Congress failed to extend the enhanced ACA premium tax credits. We recognize the urgency of this moment for action on health costs, given that 20 million Americans will begin the process of shopping for health coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces this fall, ahead of open enrollment on November 1. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued updated projections that forecast that millions will be uninsured without Congressional action. We appreciate that policymakers on both sides of the aisle recognize that families may drop plans to continue health coverage when they see unaffordable premiums – and have pushed for action on this issue repeatedly throughout this year. Now is the time for action on this issue, before families get notifications about skyrocketing health increases in the next few weeks.

For these reasons, CHN urges you to vote no on any appropriations legislation, including a short-term CR, that does not include the extension of the enhanced ACA Premium Tax Credit to prevent its expiration at the end of 2025. Ultimately, the Coalition on Human Needs supports the Protecting Healthcare and Lowering Costs Act of 2025 to repeal all of the health care provisions in H.R. 1 and make permanent the enhanced Advanced Premium Tax Credits for purchasing marketplace health insurance plans. We hope you will look to undo the damage of H.R. 1 and instead strengthen basic needs programs including Medicaid and SNAP.

Now is the time for leaders in Congress to abandon partisan Continuing Resolutions and instead sit down and negotiate on a bipartisan basis to avoid a government shutdown. By refusing to negotiate in a bipartisan manner to stop the administration’s cancellations of Congressionally-approved spending and help millions of people maintain their health insurance, the House and Senate majorities appear to be driving us straight towards a shutdown. We lament that some leaders are using this to inflict more damage – and won’t come to the table to talk about the health crisis families are facing and the need to stop attacks on important federal funding for local communities, and craft a bipartisan package before the end of the fiscal year. We call on Congress to stand united to address these issues and responsibly negotiate a bipartisan path forward.

We recognize the real harms of a shutdown, especially a lengthy one, for communities across the country. But these same communities have experienced a “slow-moving rolling shutdown” as funding has been withheld from local programs, and federal civil servants terminated who help get important funding get to where it is needed and intended to reach, while families face real challenges affording the costs of basic needs including health care. And we share their outrage that the administration is using the threat of a partial shutdown to further advance their agenda to fire federal workers.

We urge you to vote no on the partisan CR before you this week, and instead work with colleagues and Leadership to come together on a bipartisan basis to avert a shutdown by addressing our health crisis and attacks on federal funding for local communities.

Sincerely yours,

Deborah Weinstein,
Executive Director