We are deeply saddened at the passing of Susan Rees, a great builder of the Coalition on Human Needs who served as Executive Director from 1983 to 1991.
We are so grateful Susan’s family has suggested contributions be made to CHN in Susan’s memory to continue the fight for justice.
If you would like to contribute to honor Susan Rees, please use the form below and email Radha Rath at rrath@chn.org to let us know you are contributing in Susan’s memory.
You may also contribute by mail at the following address: Coalition on Human Needs, 1825 K Street, NW, Suite 411, Washington, DC 20006.
Tell the Senate: Pass COVID relief now.
Tell the Senate:
“The House passed essential COVID-19 relief legislation on Saturday. Now, we need the Senate to act swiftly. Millions of families are struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic, and states, schools and local governments need our help to ensure they have the resources to keep our communities safe.”
The House voted on Saturday to send the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package to the Senate.We are getting closer to sending much needed relief to struggling families and cash-strapped states.
Now, we need the Senate to act. There is no margin of error in the Senate.
Write to your U.S. Senators right now, urging them to pass this $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package, which will provide aid to millions of U.S. households―to put more money in the pockets of low- and no-income families, cut childhood poverty in half and protect families against eviction and hunger.
There are new reports that some Senators are backing off of their commitment to provide essential aid to states, schools and local governments—money that’s urgently needed to continue to provide essential services during and beyond the pandemic.
President Biden’s $1.9 trillion federal stimulus bill contains $350 billion in relief for state and local governments, plus $170 billion for education. These funds will play a critical role for dozens of states that have hemorrhaged tax revenue during the pandemic recession. Alaska, for instance, saw state revenues fall by more than 42% during the pandemic. And it is needed to allow schools to open safely, with the extra help children will need if they’ve fallen behind.
The bill, passed by the U.S. House, provides truly important help where it is most needed. It would extend jobless benefits, provide substantial increases to the Child Tax Credit and EITC—which would cut childhood poverty nearly in half—fund housing and nutrition aid, provide $1,400 direct payments to people throughout our country, fund vaccine distribution, prevent child care providers from shutting down permanently, expand health care, and much more.
This direct aid to people, families and communities is critical to helping those struggling from loss of income, and it’s critical to getting us through this deadly pandemic.
While the House measure extends unemployment benefits, we need it to go further. Millions of families throughout our country are facing the dire circumstances of losing a job through no fault of their own. The House bill lets jobless benefits expire at the end of August. Economists know that’s not enough time, and worse, Congress will be in recess and unable to extend benefits in a timely way. Together, we need to make sure Congress extends this essential lifeline to at least early October.
The Saving Children from Povertyedition.This week’s COVID-19 Watch is all about children. President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, now being turned into legislation in the House, includes provisions that taken together, would cut child poverty in half, according to the Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy. And just one of those proposals, the increase in the Child Tax Credit, would have the biggest impact, lifting 40 percent of children out of poverty. That means Congress is now working on a plan that will do immense good.
Here are some important truths: (1) child poverty can cause long-lasting harm in children; (2) the pandemic has increased poverty and its attendant hardships of hunger and the struggle to meet other basic needs; (3) poor children are more likely to fall behind in school, and the pandemic’s online schooling is making this worse; (4) children of color are disproportionately poor and disproportionately subject to the hardships children are now experiencing; and (5) Congress has the opportunity to take a gigantic step to reduce the harm. No one should fail to see how much is at stake for children now. Everyone should make sure Congress enacts the American Rescue Plan.
The Child Tax Credit is one major advance cited below, but there is so much more that benefits children in the Rescue Plan. Other forms of cash aid, such as continued unemployment benefits andthe $1,400 payments, allow families to pay their bills. Raising the minimum wage gradually to $15/hour will help families make ends meet. Increased nutrition aid and emergency rental assistance are essential. More child care funding, paid leave, aid for schools and other state and local services, expanded health coverage and vaccines – all will help children and their families.
Advocates are continuing to press to help more children in immigrant families, millions of whom are still left out. The unemployment benefits in the bill should extend till the end of September, not the end of August.More Medicaid funds are needed to help people with disabilities and seniors get the services they need and to help statesexpand their Medicaid programs.Let’s add to the good that the American Rescue Plan will do, prevent any cuts to undermine it, and let’s tell every senator and representative to vote for it.
4 in 10
How many children would be lifted out of poverty this year if the proposed temporary expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit become law, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Tweet this.
9.9 million
The numberof children that would be lifted out of poverty or made less poorif proposed expansions to the Child Tax Credit are enacted. That includes 4.1 million Latino children, 2.3 million Black children, and 441,000 Asian American children. Tweet this.
Twice as likely; 2 fewer years;
Less than ½ as much
When compared to children in families above twice the poverty line, poor children were twice as likely to report poor health or psychological distress; to complete 2 fewer years of schooling; and earn less than one-half as much as they reached adulthood. Reducing child poverty will improve outcomes for children in ways that will last a lifetime. Tweet this.
More than half
54 percent of adults living with children said someone in their household had lost income from work since last March (surveyed Jan. 20 – Feb. 1). Tweet this.
How many adults living with children said their households sometimes/often did not have enough to eat in the previous week – 15 percent of all adults with children, asked Jan. 20 – Feb. 1. Among households with children earning less than $25,000/yr, 38% were going without food.
19.1 million down; 10.6 million up
The number of children getting free or reduced price school lunches plummeted by 19.1 million from March to April, 2020, because the pandemic shut down schools. But the federal Pandemic-EBT program started, and its participants rose from 2 million in March to 12.6 million in May, 2020. That’s a big success, but it still left millions of children behind.
How many months of learning loss predicted for Black children, Hispanic children, and children in low-income households, assuming low-quality remote instruction and return to in-class education in Jan. 2021 (opening schools is not happening that soon in many places).
Nearly three-quarters
Voters in four states represented by moderate senators – Alaska, Arizona, Maine, and West Virginia – support President Biden’s proposed increase in the Child Tax Credit at rates ranging from about 70 – 78 percent, according to a new poll released this week. The poll also found similar support for Biden’s proposed $1,400 one-time payments.
February 12, 2021