When it comes to juggling work and family, moms are truly doing it all. Seventy-four percent of mothers were in the labor force in 2023 even as they took on a majority of families’ unpaid caregiving responsibilities. They’re major breadwinners too – nationally, 79 percent of Black mothers, 48 percent of white mothers, 43 percent of Asian and Pacific Island mothers, 49 percent of Latina mothers and 64 percent of Native American mothers lead their household’s earnings.
Archives: Voices
I run a food pantry but it’s not enough. We need funding for SNAP.
I run a food pantry. I’m proud of the work we do. But if lawmakers passed a liveable minimum wage or invested more in programs like SNAP, people wouldn’t need to rely on pantries like mine. Pantries are a critical piece of the anti-hunger puzzle, but they’re filler pieces. Government nutrition programs — with the infrastructure and funding to get the job done — should be the centerpiece.
698 groups tell appropriators: Invest in Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education needs
This week, almost 700 local, state, and national groups urged Congressional leaders to adequately fund programs included under the purview of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations subcommittees. The 698 groups, noting a previously enacted stringent cap on non-defense discretionary spending (aka, annual appropriations) for fiscal year 2025, urged that committee members avoid imposing “additional cuts for the necessary services this subcommittee oversees, and that funding is found to respond to urgent needs.”
Groups urge Senate to act on expanded Child Tax Credit before the end of May
More than 80 groups this week urged Senate leaders to take up the proposed expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) during the current congressional work period, which runs until late May. The groups, including the Coalition on Human Needs, signed a letter urging that the expanded CTC either be taken up as stand-alone legislation, or be attached as an amendment to must-pass legislation such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act, whose deadline is Friday, May 10, although that could be extended.
Congress must reject xenophobic and unconstitutional attack on the Census today
We at the Coalition on Human Needs strongly urge the House to reject H.R. 7109, an unconstitutional bill which would require the Census Bureau to ask about citizenship in the decennial census and apportion House seats only based on citizens.
CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Tracking Hardship, May 3, 2024
The IRS is improving edition. Back in 2022, as part of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the Internal Revenue Service received an additional $80 billion over a decade to modernize. $20 billion of that money was “clawed back” as a result of an agreement between Republicans and the White House to suspend the national debt limit and prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its financial obligations. Now some in Congress would like to see the agency’s budget shrink further, not grow. But the facts are in as to how the IRS is making use of its new funds – and the news is good, particularly for taxpayers with modest incomes.
Collected: 16,512 long-sleeve, lightly colored shirts to protect farmworkers from excessive heat, pesticide exposure
Each year in the U.S., tens if not hundreds of thousands of farmworkers are exposed to dangerous pesticides while working crop productions. The exact number is not known – years back, the Centers for Disease Control reported that diagnosed cases of sickness from pesticide poisoning range from 10,000 to 20,000 annually. And many more workers are exposed to excessive heat.
Advocates celebrate new rules governing nursing homes, home care: ‘This is about dignity’
Care advocates across the nation this week are celebrating two new Biden Administration rules aimed at improving care in nursing homes and raising the salaries of home and community-based workers after years of organizing by patients, care workers, and their allies.
The expanding scourge of child exploitation in the U.S. workforce
Child labor violations in the U.S. workforce are sharply on the rise, in part because of some employers seeking to pay workers less in a tight labor market, an increasing number of states rolling back laws protecting children, and an industry-wide effort to eliminate such protections on both the state and federal level.
Lawmakers should spend a night in a homeless shelter
If there’s one thing I could tell lawmakers, it would be to bring back the expanded, monthly, fully refundable Child Tax Credit. Lawmakers are now considering a more modest expansion. It doesn’t go far enough, but it could lift another 400,000 kids out of poverty — children like the ones I worked with.
CHN’s Human Needs Watch: Tracking Hardship, April 19, 2024
The Affordable Connectivity Program edition. One of the 21st century’s many enduring racial and class barriers is the digital divide. As of 2021, Black and Latino adults were almost twice as likely as White adults to lack broadband access. For many, whether you have access to high-speed internet too often depends on the color of your skin or the zip code in which you live – both strongly correlated with poverty.
Criminalizing the unhoused: ‘Make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move on down the road.’
On Monday, April 22, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which observers are calling the most important case in decades involving the rights of unhoused people. At issue: can cities, counties, and states punish people with fines or even jail time who sleep in public places when shelter beds or affordable housing are not available? Or does such action by governments constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment?