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.
The Senate must reject Trump's effort to stack the court
It is less than three weeks before the presidential election, but Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are pressing ahead with their plan to pack the Supreme Court with conservative justices.
If their ploy to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett on a near party line vote succeeds, they will establish a 6-3 majority that will set the stage for undermining desperately needed protections of working people for years to come. A lopsided conservative majority could quickly overturn the Affordable Care Act, undermining the health care of tens of millions of Americans.
We have seen a widening of inequality―made even worse by the COVID-19 pandemic which has been utterly mismanaged by the Trump administration. Our country needs Supreme Court justices who will not further stack the deck against people with low incomes, racial, ethnic or religious minorities, or people with disabilities. We have serious concerns about Judge Barrett’s previous rulings and statements in five main areas: access to health care, immigration, workers’ rights, anti-discrimination, and criminal justice.
It is unacceptable that Mitch McConnell and Senate leadership are ramming through this confirmation for Judge Barrett just three weeks before Election Day. Meanwhile, the Senate Leadership has refused, time and again, to take action on an adequate COVID-19 relief bill.
The real urgency before the Senate is responding to the needs of millions of people who are threatened by the disease itself and its economic repercussions.
Consider these facts: Nearly half of all Americans are in households that have lost income from work because of the pandemic; one in five households with children are behind on their rent; 11.6 million people in households with children are not getting enough to eat.
But instead of focusing on these dire needs, Mitch McConnell and Senate leadership are all too happy to ram through Trump’s replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit engineered to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on November 10, just one week after the election. Confirming Judge Barrett to the Supreme Court will make that dangerous possibility of overturning the ACA all too likely.
Striking down this critical health care law would strip access to health care from millions of people and end the law’s protections for the more than 130 million Americans with preexisting conditions, including more than 7 million Americans who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Overturning the ACA would have a devastating and disproportionate impact on low-income communities, communities of color, women, children, and people with disabilities.
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CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship September 11, 2020
The Reckless Abandonment Edition. While President Trump admits to misleading the American public on the health threat posed by COVID-19 – and more than 191,000 Americans are dead partly as a result – there can be no denying that the economic threat our country faces is dire. And yet: still no meaningful action from the Senate. Food scarcity in this country is exploding at an alarming rate. An eviction moratorium is in place, but due to loopholes and bureaucracy, people are still being evicted – and tens of millions more will join them early next year unless Congress provides emergency rental assistance. The $600 weekly federal UI payment has long expired – and the temporary, not-quite-workable $300 that the President authorized by taking disaster relief funds from FEMA soon will run out, even in states that are distributing the relief (almost two-thirds are not). Unemployment is rising again, but without schools and child care centers re-opening, many parents will be unable to work – even if they could find jobs, which many can’t. But instead of offering a serious response, Senate Majority Leader McConnell put a grossly inadequate bill on the floor that predictably and rightfully failed. That leaves the possibility that no relief package will be approved until the new year. This is unacceptable and outrageous. Bipartisan negotiations in Washington, D.C. must begin immediately.
The number of statesthat have made payments to jobless workers under President Trump’s Lost Wage Assistance (LWA) program. The rest have not yet started (South Dakota won’t provide this aid at all). Texas already has announced its last payment, offering only six weeks of aid. Tweet this.
9.2%
The unemployment rate for the week ending Sept. 5. That’s up from the August rate of 8.4%.
668,000
The total number of educator jobs lost since the pandemic began, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The National Education Association estimates that nearly two million K-12 jobs will be lost over the next three years if Congress does not act. Tweet this.
Half or more
The number of households in America’s four largest cities – New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston – that report facing serious financial problems, with issues ranging from depleting their savings to serious problems paying rent, according to a new poll. It’s worse for Latinx and Black households. Tweet this.
54 million
The number of Americans who could be food insecure by year’s end, according to Feeding America. That would be a 46% increase since the pandemic began.
$312b – $500b
The combined budget shortfall through summer 2022 for state and local governments, respectively, according to an analysis by Moody Analytics.
22 million
The number of adults who reported that they or someone in their household didn’t have enough to eat in the past seven days. That was true of 12 million adults in households with children — 14.1% of all adults in households with children.
40%
The percentage of people Feeding America’s more than 200 food banks nationwide are serving who had never had to rely upon a charitable food system before the pandemic struck.
19.2 million
The number of adults who are now uninsured. (18.6 million of these are between the ages of 18 and 64.)
