
Coalition on Human Needs to Senators: Oppose the Rescissions Package
Editor’s note: CHN sent the letter below to all members of the U.S Senate on July 11, 2025.
Dear Senator:
On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I strongly urge you to vote NO on the rescissions package expected on the Senate floor next week – based not only on the specific harms of rescinding these funds, but also the precedent of attacking Congressionally-approved funding for communities, therefore undermining the bipartisan appropriations process and paving the way for further cuts to important programs at a time of that many in local communities are struggling with the costs of basic needs.
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 is critical to everyone from veterans to children to the elderly, and impacts communities across the country and virtually every aspect of our lives 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, including the aging and those with disabilities. Typically, Congress appropriates funds for these and many other services through a lengthy bipartisan process.
CHN opposes this rescissions package because we support continued federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to ensure continued independent news, public affairs, and educational radio and television programming, which in many areas – especially in rural communities — provides the only access to local journalism and coverage of government decisions affecting people with low incomes. While the Coalition on Human Needs explicitly focuses on domestic policy, many CHN members are deeply concerned about the impact of massive cuts to global human needs programs given the suffering caused by cuts not only to global health programs but also policies to address food insecurity, maternal and child health, democracy, and more. We note the longstanding bipartisan support for local public radio and PBS along with global development programs, and our membership represents some of the communities who would be directly harmed by these spending cuts.
Beyond our specific opposition to this rescissions bill, we are deeply concerned about the precedent it sets. A vote for the rescissions package will “rubber stamp” the Administration’s moves to block or withhold funding for local communities across the country without regard for Congress’ constitutional power of the purse. Many organizations in communities across the country are either currently feeling the impact of federal funding being cut off or would be decimated by the Trump Administration withholding funds and/or future rescissions packages. Estimates are that the Trump Administration has blocked or withheld at least $425 billion total for local communities. For example, the U.S. Department of Education recently announced that it was withholding nearly $7 billion in FY2025 public education and children’s program funding, impacting students, educators, and families in every state and school district across the country, after Congress approved and President Trump signed into law FY2025 funding for students and classrooms along with after-school and summer programs. Congress should insist that the Administration follow the law, release the funding Congress enacted, and provide the services required by statutes. A vote for this rescissions package will pave the way for other cuts that will cripple vital programs and services across the country, contrary to the considered decision-making of duly elected members of Congress.
Congress serves a constitutionally mandated role in passing funding bills, and a vote for the rescissions package codifies the Administration’s unprecedented moves to block funding already enacted in law and paves the way for future moves to withdraw much-needed resources for local communities. Our members care deeply about the need for bipartisan consideration of annual appropriations bills, and many have sounded the alarm that passing this rescissions package in a fast-tracked partisan process will be a “poison pill” for future appropriations bills by setting a precedent that those final funding agreements can be overridden with just 51 votes. Passage of this rescissions package sends a clear message that even if members of Congress were to approve a government funding bill, this Administration would continue to ignore longstanding Congressional support for needed services. By going down this path, Congress risks irreparable damage to the regular bipartisan appropriations process.
We urge you to stand firm and not allow efforts to radically undermine Congress’ role in appropriating funds to support approved federal programs in ways that hurt people and communities across the country. We urge you to reject this rescissions package that enables the Administration’s attacks on important funding for communities, undermines the bipartisan appropriations process, and paves the way for further cuts to important programs at a time of our people’s increasing needs.
Sincerely yours,
Deborah Weinstein,
Executive Director