Congress has enacted the Big Brutal Bill and Donald Trump has signed it into law.
This bill is deadly.
According to researchers from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts plus other health care cuts—the largest in history—will result in the deaths of 51,000 people per year. Those deaths include 18,200 people who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare, 20,000 people who will lose health care coverage due to the elimination of the premium tax credit for the Affordable Care Act, and 13,000 deaths due to staffing cuts at nursing homes.
At a time when so many are struggling to afford the basic costs of living including groceries, new data from the Urban Institute shows that 5.3 million families will lose $25 or more per month in SNAP benefits, with the average such family losing $146 a month in help paying for food. Sixty-two percent of the families experiencing these very large SNAP losses include children.
All of this is being done in order to pay for extending the Trump tax scam—making tax breaks for the rich permanent—and funding Trump’s mass immigration detention and removal machine.
Congress needs to hear from you. Send a message thanking those who stood up and voted against this monstrosity of a bill, or send a message to your members of Congress who voted for it, admonishing them for their vote.
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When Congress returns next week, senators are tentatively scheduled to consider a measure that could extend $600 million in emergency nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico. About half of the 1.35 million Puerto Ricans who receive NAP benefits began experiencing cuts earlier this month; by today – Friday, March 22 – all 1.35 million recipients will be feeling the cuts.
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for a detailed analysis of President Trump’s FY20 budget request, plus the latest on the loss of food aid for millions, the Trump emergency declaration, a new bill to protect Dreamers, and more.
The cost of child care is generating an economic and moral crisis within the United States. With yearly prices soaring above the cost of in-state college tuition in 28 states, parents are forced to spend large portions of their income on child care at a time when they have accumulated little wealth.
For the Puerto Rican coastal community of Loiza, the hits just keep coming. First there was Hurricane Irma, which sideswiped the eastern part of the island, where Loiza is located, late at night on Sept. 4, 2017. Not even two weeks later, Hurricane Maria came ashore, scoring an even more direct hit than Irma, and once again, Loiza absorbed the worst of the storm’s fury. Now the community faces a new threat as residents face cuts to their Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
President Trump’s budget for FY 2020 is consistent with his presidency so far. It is all about denying help to those who lack power or wealth and lavishing advantage to those who have both.
Waldemiro Velez Soto of San Juan, Puerto Rico didn’t know his family’s food rations were being cut. Velez Soto and his family survive off of their NAP benefits. (NAP is Puerto Rico’s version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.) With few jobs available in Puerto Rico, Velez Soto cannot earn enough for him and his family to survive. And based on our conversation, he is not the only Puerto Rican forced to live like this.
A second federal judge blocked the Trump Administration from including a question about citizenship status on the decennial Census, saying, “The inclusion of the citizenship question on the 2020 Census threatens the very foundation of our democratic system.”
A new crisis is sweeping across Puerto Rico. Unlike Hurricanes Maria and Irma, however, this one is entirely man-made. More than one out of every three Puerto Ricans receives benefits from the island’s Nutrition Assistance Program (NAP), the island’s version of SNAP (once known as food stamps). Earlier this month, however, recipients began receiving sharp cuts in benefits because Congress has failed to extend assistance that was first approved as part of post-hurricane recovery.
Upcoming Webinar: The Trump Budget — What You Need to Know Thursday, March 14th 2 P.M. EDT, 1 P.M. CDT, 12 P.M. MDT, 11 A.M. PDT Register Here Even if you can’t attend, you should register to get access to the webinar recording with captions, slides, and follow-up information. Each…
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on early FY20 budget talks, the potential loss of food aid for millions, a blow to low-income consumers, ongoing immigration battles, and more.
Could the U.S. cut child poverty in half over the next ten years? Yes – and on Thursday, Feb. 28, a panel of experts explained how. The experts, convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the request of Congress, spent two years studying child poverty in the U.S. and identifying evidence-based programs and policies to reduce the number of children in poverty.
In a letter signed by CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein and sent to every member of the U.S. House, CHN this week urged Congress to vote in favor of a resolution to terminate the President’s national emergency declaration regarding the border. This is CHN’s letter.