| Trump’s Budget Request: What’s In It & Why We Care
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Each year the law requires the President to send a detailed budget request to Congress. Because Congress has primary authority over the budget, this is usually a formality. This year, Trump’s 2020 Presidential request will serve as a starting point for budget negotiations between the House and Senate. This exercise is usually an opportunity for the Administration to highlight its priorities and signal policy directions it wants to take. In many ways, budgets are moral documents—they reflect where the administration is making investments and what problems they are seeking to solve.
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| What's in the Budget Proposal?
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- Major cuts to anti-poverty programs: The proposal cuts all non-defense programs by 11 percent in 2020 with an 18 percent cut to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and a 12 percent cut to Health and Human Services (HHS). See funding levels for programs we care about at HUD and HRSA under HHS. Over 10 years, the proposal would cut $1.4 trillion from Medicaid, $220 billion from food stamps, $70 billion from Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and $21 billion from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
- Work requirements in housing, food, and health care: The proposal would impose new requirements and strengthen existing work reporting requirements within the food stamp/SNAP program, HUD’s rental assistance program, and Medicaid. Work requirements punish individuals who are unemployed, underemployed, or unable to submit paperwork. By the Administration’s own calculations, roughly 1.7 million people would lose Medicaid over ten years due to the suggested changes (and presently we know over 18,000 lost coverage in Arkansas).
- Devastating changes to Medicaid: In addition to the major cuts and harmful work requirements detailed above, the proposal would effectively eliminate Medicaid expansion and replace it with inadequate block grants and per capita caps. A similar proposal was rejected by Congress in 2017, as it would greatly reduce Medicaid funding for states and harm millions of people. It’s important to note that these changes are proposed following the President’s contradictory commitment to reduce new HIV infections. Read our statement about the dangers of Medicaid block grants.
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This budget proposal is a bold statement of the White House’s priorities. While the changes and cuts in the budget are not surprising given the administration’s other actions, they are a reminder that the Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) community must continue its advocacy against harmful work requirements and cuts to critical benefit programs. Alongside standard budget negotiations for fiscal year 2020, this year Congress must reach a deal to avert automatic spending cuts put in place in 2011 and renew funding for many expiring programs (including the Health Center Funding Cliff). As we get closer to the October 1st deadline for the 2020 budget we will continue to share updates and opportunities for Action in Mobilizer. This budget proposal is a reminder to stay vigilant in our advocacy for housing and health care as a human right.
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| Medicaid Work Requirement Update
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| Last Chance to Fight for Food Assistance!
The Trump Administration released a proposed rule that strengthens work requirements in the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/Food Stamps). This rule would end food assistance for many people who do not meet the employment criteria and those who are unable to sufficiently document their work hours each week. This rule is likely to increase hunger and poverty for over 700,000 people if implemented.
Submit comments as an individual and forward this email to someone with authority to submit a letter on behalf of your organization. The public comment period ends soon, on Tuesday, April 2nd, and it is critical that members of the HCH community submit comments. We encourage you to use our comment letter as a template to explain why work requirements in SNAP are detrimental to poverty and homelessness. Find more information, other templates, and an easy-to-use submission form on the Food Research and Action Center’s website.
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| New Resources from the Council
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• The Council’s Poverty Policy Podcast's new “Episode 4: Yoga,” explores the role of yoga in a health care setting, the importance of a safe space for people experiencing poverty, and implications for our advocacy work. The podcast features an interview with talented individuals from Baltimore’s HCH program: Client Yoga Activist Yogi Albert; Behavioral Health Therapist Deirdre Hoey; and Senior Policy Director Barbara DiPietro. Learn more about the connection between yoga, poverty, and policy in our latest episode.
• Katherine Cavanaugh, NHCHC Consumer Advocate at the, authored a blog for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness on how to partner with people with lived experience to systemically address homelessness. The Council is proud to include people with the lived experience of homelessness in our work.
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Exemplary Local Advocacy Advocates at Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless (AHCH) are leading efforts in the New Mexico state legislature on a bill that works to end homelessness. The Council is proud to endorse this bill, which calls for the creation of an independent study on affordable rental housing in order to improve New Mexico’s ability to fund housing vouchers and invest in more affordable housing. The study was funded through a special appropriations bill and is now awaiting the Governor’s signature. Read the bill text and a summary and learn more about AHCH’s advocacy work here. You can also read the news coverage here. Keep up the great advocacy, AHCH!
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This publication and all HCH advocacy are funded by dues from Organizational Members of the Council and by private donations. Consider joining the Council to support this work.
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