CHN just released our latest edition of the Human Needs Report, our regular newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. This edition includes articles on the ongoing appropriations process  and the Affordable Care Act. See below for the full analysis and links to each section of the report.
Click here for the full PDF Human Needs Report: http://www.chn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/June-30-2015.pdf

Appropriations Bills Advance in House and Senate…Brick Wall Ahead
House and Senate appropriators have moved many of their bills forward for the fiscal year beginning next October. Out of the dozen bills that need action, the full House has passed six bills; another four have been approved in the full Appropriations Committee. In the Senate, while nothing has gotten to a floor vote, nine of the bills have gotten full committee approval. Unlike previous years, the usually highly controversial Labor-HHS-Education bill has been approved by the full Appropriations Committees of both House and Senate. READ MORE »

Low Funding Approved for Labor-HHS-Education in House and Senate Appropriations Committees
Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have passed their FY 2016 spending bills for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. The bills provide $153 billion in discretionary (annually appropriated) spending, $3.6 billion below the FY 2015 level and at least $14.5 billion below the amount proposed by President Obama. READ MORE »

Transportation-HUD Approved by Senate Appropriations Committee and by the Full House -Too Few Rental Vouchers
The Transportation-HUD spending bill passed in Senate Appropriations on June 25 does add some funding for vouchers, specifying 10,000 new vouchers for homeless veterans and 2,500 vouchers to prevent families with children from being split up for lack of housing, as well as $40 million in new funding for homeless youth. But there is not enough funding to restore the 67,000 vouchers still lost because of sequestration in FY 2013. House-passed funding is somewhat lower than the Senate bill. READ MORE »

Supreme Court Upholds the Affordable Care Act; Congress Continues Attempts to Take it Down
The Supreme Court’s decision last Thursday upholding the use of subsidies in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) didn’t stop Republicans in Congress from talking about their next steps to try to repeal the law. READ MORE »

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