Policy Update

Human Needs Report: newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations

7/01/2005

The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. It is published every other week while Congress is in session.

To read more about any of the topics outlined here, go the the Human Needs Report Web site.

Articles from July 1, 2005

TANF Extended for the 10th Time
The House of Representatives passed another three-month TANF extension on the morning of June 29 and the Senate followed suit on Thursday, June 30. This is the 10th time TANF has been temporarily extended.

GOP Present New Plan; Critics Call it More of the Same
With support for President Bush's Social Security privatization proposal reaching new lows, Republicans in Congress are turning to new strategies to create private accounts. A poll conducted by Gallup/USA Today/CNN found Americans oppose the President's proposal by 2-to-1.


Bill Funding Nutrition Programs Advances in the Senate
On June 23, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the Agriculture and Rural Development spending bill for fiscal year 2006, which includes funding for discretionary nutrition programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

House Approves Labor-HHS-Education Spending Bill
By a vote of 250 to 151 , the House approved a bill funding many education and human needs programs on June 24. The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill sets spending for those agencies for fiscal year 2006.


Bill Funding Housing Programs Passes House
A bill approved by the House on June 30 provides fiscal year 2006 funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Passed by a vote of 405 to 18 , HR 3058 also funds the Departments of Treasury and Transportation, the judiciary and the District of Columbia.

Senate Appropriators Cut Census Survey of Income, Poverty Data
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill with funding inadequate to continue the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). This survey has a sample size large enough to provide income, poverty, housing quality, and other important data for states and certain counties on an annual basis.

Affordable Housing Fund a Step Closer
On May 25, the House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that creates a new regulator for government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill, which was approved by a vote of 65-5, includes a provision requiring both GSEs to set aside 5 percent of their after-tax profits in an Affordable Housing Fund that will be used to expand housing for very low- and extremely low-income families.