Human Services
Community Building
Digest

According to an article in the Washington Post, with his 2006 budget, President Bush delivered Congress a tall order, asking for at least six significant governmental reorganizations and an unprecedented five-year freeze in domestic spending to get control of the federal budget deficit.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http:/story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/washpost/20050208/ts_washpost/a6230_2005feb7

Cuts to Low-Income Programs May Far Exceed the Contribution of These Programs to Deficit's Return

An analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains that because substantial parts of the budget, including revenues, are to be largely or entirely off the table when deficit reduction plans are drawn up  and also because low-income programs tend to lack the political support of other programs with more powerful constituencies a very large share of the budget reductions enacted this year may consist of cuts in programs for low-income families and individuals. 

http://www.cbpp.org/2-4-05bud.htm

President’s Budget Projects 300,000 Low-Income Children to Lose Child Care by 2010

The Center for Law and Social Policy reports that according to the Administration’s own calculations, an estimated 300,000 fewer low-income children will receive child care assistance by 2010. The President’s budget would freeze child care funding for 2006 and projects that child care funding would remain frozen for the next five years, through 2010.

PDF: http://www.clasp.org/doctrack.php?doc=cc_2006_budget.pdf

Key Foundation Resources on the Health Related Proposals of the President's FY2006 Budget

The Kaiser Family Foundation has aggregated some resources to help examine the health care priorities detailed in the President's FY2006 budget proposal.

http://www.kff.org/newsroom/2006budget.cfm

Budget Continues Trend of Misplaced Priorities

According to the National Women's Law Center the administration’s 2006 budget proposes harsh cuts in domestic programs outside of homeland security. Consistent with the policy of the last four budgets offered by this Administration, the President proposes a slew of new tax cuts that would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans, including a $1 trillion proposal to make permanent the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003.

http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=2151&section=infocenter

Bush Shortchanges Children; Bush Budget Slashes Education Funding

The Institute for America's Future released a report today analyzing the cuts and funding freezes found in President Bush's new spending plan sent to Congress this week. The report shows that President Bush's 2006 budget fails to adequately fund essential early education and after-school programs, eliminates the Even Start literacy program, freezes work-study funding for college and kills funding for 48 education programs.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=42829

State Legislators Group Commends Bush Administration for Focusing Education Resources on Students' Needs; Budget Plan Increases State Flexibility

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) commends the U.S. Department of Education's proposed 2006 budget, unveiled yesterday by President Bush. The plan will expand flexibility by allowing local school districts to utilize their federal funds in programs that students need most.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=128-02082005&site=rss

FRAC's Response to the President's Budget Proposal

In a statement, The Food Research and Action Center expressed concern that in the nutrition program area the Administration seeks: to limit states’ ability to get food stamps to working families with children which are low income but not receiving cash welfare; to cap discretionary program spending, a change that, over time, would adversely affect the ability of the WIC Program, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Meals on Wheels, and other nutrition programs to serve vulnerable people; and to eliminate the Community Food and Nutrition Program, which funds community-based services that help needy families obtain nutrition benefits they need.

http://www.frac.org/Legislative/Budget_06/FRAC_Statement.html

FY 06 Budget: Cuts for Vital Health and Social Programs, Increases for Unproven, Factually Inaccurate Abstinence-Only Programs

A statement the President of Advocates for Youth on the proposed federal budget.  In the context of a budget that slashes spending for essential programs, from heating for seniors to bioterrorism prevention, the $38 million increase for unproven abstinence-only-until-marriage programs is dumbfounding. The decision is even more difficult to defend, given recent reports that curricula used by a majority of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs provide false and misleading information.

http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/news/press/020805.htm

Statement: President's Medicaid Budget Shifts Huge Financial Burden to States

The Executive Director of Families USA issued a statement  about the administration’s  proposed budget:  “The President’s cuts of at least $45 billion in federal Medicaid payments is huge and will shift enormous costs to the states, an ill-conceived move that will add to the financial burden states are already experiencing. As a result, many seniors, children, and the sickest people in Medicaid will be devastated by a loss of health coverage.  The dollar amount lost in the fifth year of the proposal alone is the equivalent of providing health coverage for over 345,000 seniors. It is also the equivalent of giving health coverage to almost 1.8 million children.”

PDF: http://www.familiesusa.org/site/DocServer/Budget_Statement_ltrhd_2-7-05.pdf?docID=7581

**Children, Youth & Families

Teenagers Find Information About Sex on the Internet When They Look for It

A special issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology devoted to research on children and the electronic media finds that American children live in an "all-pervasive sexualized media environment" that produces a "tremendous amount of inadvertent exposure to pornography and other adult sexual media." Teenagers are routinely exposed to values on the Internet that would disturb many parents; teens often search the Internet for information about sex that they would be embarrassed to discuss with an adult. Race is another popular topic in teen chat rooms.

http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050203.150848&time=15%2031%20PST&year=2005&public=1

State Partners With National Foster Care Organization to Address Racial Disparities in Texas Child Welfare System

Casey Family Programs and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) announced a partnership designed to address concerns about the over-representation of African-American children in the Texas foster care system.  Proportionally, African-American children are more likely to enter the child welfare system than the rest of Texas' child population, according to officials with Child Protective Services, a program of DFPS. African-American children represent 12.6 percent of the state's child population but account for 26.1 percent of children brought into the foster care system.

http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050207.172006&time=06%2000%20PST&year=2005&public=1

The Health and Well-Being of Young Children of Immigrants

The Urban Institute reports that there are 5.1 million young children of immigrants, representing 22 percent of all U.S. children under age 6. While 93 percent of these children are U.S.-born citizens, 29 percent have undocumented parents. Young children of immigrants with two parents are three times as likely to be poor as children of natives, and so marriage is not an antidote to poverty for these children.  Despite higher economic hardship, young children of immigrants are less likely than native counterparts to receive TANF, food stamps, or housing assistance. They are also less likely to be in center-based child care, potentially limiting their preparation for schooling.

http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9161

New Regulation on Review and Adjustment of Child Support Orders

A memo from the Center for Law and Social Policy describes a new Interim Final regulation on review and adjustment of child support orders in states using the guidelines method of adjustment. The Office of Child Support Enforcement is proposing to return to a policy under which these states can adopt quantitative standards for adjusting support orders. Such standards allow states to disregard adjustments of a small magnitude, even when such adjustments could be consequential for both low-income custodial parent families and obligors.

PDF: http://www.clasp.org/doctrack.php?doc=cs_orders.pdf

**Community Development

Credit Where It's Due - Urban Parks

According to The Urban Institute, urban parks have long played a vital role in community- based programs for young people. Their traditional role has been to provide venues for play--open spaces, playgrounds, sports fields, and recreational programs. But parks can go much further than simply providing opportunities for recreation. The author provides examples of where urban parks can contribute to the fight against crime, childhood obesity, or run-down neighborhoods.

http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9160

Bleak Math of Killings Clouds Baltimore's Anti-Crime Effort

It has been a bleak winter in the housing projects and row houses where Baltimore's narcotics dealers dispense crack and heroin like fast-food orders. Warring factions are killing rivals at a relentless clip. The bodies have mounted at a rate of almost one a day over the last month.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http:/story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/latimests/20050209/ts_latimes/bleakmathofkillingscloudsbaltimoresanticrimeeffort

Too Late for Katie, Town Tackles a Drug's Scourge

A story in the New York Times details how the death of a girl and the arrest of an unemployed high school dropout have shaken a small Indiana town out of silence about the scourge of methamphetamine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/national/10meth.html?ex=1265778000&en=d6a20dc20b034376&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

State Corrections Statistics

The National Institute of Corrections has released detailed statistics covering crime, population, incarceration, and community corrections. See how your state compares to other states and the national average.

http://www.nicic.org/WebTopic_346.htm

HUD Announces $10.7 Million in Grants to Increase Self-Sufficiency for Public Housing Residents, Aid Elderly, Disabled

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $10,797,326 in grants that will be used to help public housing residents become economically self-sufficient and give elderly and people with disabilities supportive services to allow independent living.  The Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS) Program grants are awarded to public housing authorities (PHAs), resident organizations or non-profit organizations acting on behalf of residents.

http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr05-015.cfm

Public Housing Reform and Voucher Success: Progress and Challenges

A report from Brookings finds that by the mid-1990s, a general consensus had emerged that in too many instances, public housing failed to provide quality, affordable housing to the nation's neediest families. The nation's worst public housing developments warehoused poor, minority families in isolated blocks of high-rises or overwhelming concentrations of low-rise buildings. The conditions of these developments had so corroded that they attracted drug and criminal activity. The management of public housing in many large cities had become abysmal, resulting in the long neglect of even the most basic building repairs and maintenance needs. Because of these and other factors, the best possible role models in public housing—working families—had mostly left.

http://www.brookings.org/metro/pubs/20050124_solomon.htm

Appropriations Shortfall Cuts Funding For 80,000 Housing Vouchers This Year

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on December 8, 2004, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2005, setting spending levels for 13 federal departments including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  The Administration had originally proposed cutting funding for the leading federal rental assistance program, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, sharply below the 2004 level.  While Congress restored most of the funding cut sought by the Administration based on early estimates of program funding needs, the funding the appropriations act provides for 2005 is substantially below the amount needed to fund the bill’s formula for renewing housing vouchers.

http://www.cbpp.org/2-11-05hous.htm

American Indian, Corporate, Federal Leaders Pledge Commitment to Native Enterprise Development

The second day of "Reservation Economic Summit 2005" was marked by an outpouring of support for Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-owned businesses from top leaders in Indian Country -- including First Lady of the Navajo Nation.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=175-02092005&site=rss

**Education

Does Delaying Kindergarten Benefit Children and Families?

Research from RAND finds that a one-year delay in kindergarten entrance has a positive and significant effect on children's test scores. The initial entrance-age effect is smaller among poor and disabled children, but delaying entrance has a sizable effect on their test score gains over time. Higher childcare prices and maternal wages lower the age at which parents desire to send their child to kindergarten.

http://www.rand.org/publications/RGSD/RGSD177/

Is French Preschool Right for America? New Report Raises Questions about Government Plans for Preschool

A report on early education programs released from the Goldwater Institute, shows that U.S. elementary students outperform their international peers in reading, math, and science.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=124-02082005&site=rss

**Economic Security

Tax Refund Loans Cost Low-Income Workers $690 Million in Unnecessary, Unjust Fees

According to the Children’s Defense Fund, millions of low-income American workers paid more than $690 million in unnecessary fees and excessive interest in 2003 to quickly collect their tax refunds.  Through the use of Refund Anticipation Loans, low-income taxpayers were burdened with interest rates that exceed as much as 700 percent-an unconscionable business practice that siphoned needed cash away from working families.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/pressreleases/050209.aspx

Understanding Expenditure Patterns in Retirement

According to The Urban Institute understanding the consumption needs of retirees is critical to assessing the adequacy of retirement income and the possible impact of Social Security reform on older Americans. This study uses data from the Health and Retirement Study, including a supplemental expenditure survey, to analyze spending patterns and consumption needs for adults ages 65 and older. Typical older married adults spend 84 percent of after-tax household income, and nonmarried adults spend 92 percent of after-tax income.

http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9156

Real Wages Fall in 2004, Weakest Jobs Recovery on Record Continues

The Economic Policy Institute provides an analysis of the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data in its Jobs Picture.  EPI's JobWatch.org tracks job and wage trends over the course of the recession and lackluster recovery.

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_econindicators_jobspict_20050204

**Health

Experts Urge Routine HIV Tests for All

Urging a major shift in U.S. policy, some health experts are recommending that virtually all Americans be tested routinely for the AIDS virus, much as they are for cancer and other diseases.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http:/story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050210/ap_on_he_me/hiv_testing

Healthcare Costs Take Big Bite From Economy

A report released by the Boston University School of Public Health concludes that increased spending for healthcare is gobbling up about one-quarter of the growth in the economy, and health-related items now amount to more than three times the defense budget and twice what the nation devotes to education.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http:/story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/latimests/20050209/ts_latimes/healthcarecoststakebigbitefromeconomy

Medical Malpractice Reform

On February 4, a panel of experts discussed medical malpractice reform efforts at the state and federal levels, why malpractice premiums are rising and how reform might affect premiums and patients.  An archived Webcast of this live "Ask the Experts" program is available on kaisernetwork.org.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=1341

Future Medicaid Growth Is Not Due to Flaws in the Program's Design

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that the rise in Medicaid costs is not due to the design of the Medicaid program.  Rather, it is due to two broader trends increases in health care costs that are affecting the U.S. health care system as a whole, including the private sector, and the aging of the population.

http://www.cbpp.org/2-4-05health.htm

How Well Does Individual Insurance Work?

A study from the Commonwealth Fund assesses the effectiveness of state regulations that attempt to make individual policies more accessible and affordable. Stricter regulation has made an important difference, but affordability is still a major problem. The authors endorse reforms that would require insurers to offer coverage to all, with reasonable waiting periods for preexisting conditions; require standardized benefits; limit permissible rating factors and rate variation; and most important, find ways to insure individuals through the group market.

http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=259025

Case Studies of the Individual Insurance Market

Case studies from the Commonwealth Fund of Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington provide an in-depth look at a range of regulatory strategies used to make individual health insurance policies more accessible and affordable.

http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=259022

**Hunger & Nutrition

Obesity, Poverty and Participation in Nutrition Assistance Programs

The Department of Agriculture released a scientific review finds no evidence that federal nutrition program participation causes obesity

PDF: http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/menu/Published/NutritionEducation/Files/ObesityPoverty.pdf

Background Report on the Use and Impact of Food Assistance Programs on Indian Reservations

A report  prepared for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, reviews existing data sources and prior research on six programs operated by the Department that provide food assistance to American Indians living on or near reservations.  Research topics of continuing importance include the impacts of reservation food assistance on health and nutrition, the characteristics that make nutrition education effective on reservations, the dynamics of program participation, and the contribution of tribal administration to program coordination.

http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9157

**Philanthropy

Communities Nationwide Come Together to Change the Face of Philanthropy

A new report by New Ventures in Philanthropy reveals that giving circles have become an important and growing force in philanthropy, investing more than $44 million in communities nationwide since 2000. It also finds that women are often the driving force behind this new philanthropic trend.  Grassroots philanthropy groups throughout the country are changing the way Americans give to charity. Known as giving circles, small groups of friends, neighbors, families or acquaintances are proving that the very wealthy are not the only ones who can make a real difference in their communities.

http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050207.092248&time=05%2000%20PST&year=2005&public=1