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TELL
CONGRESS “BUDGET PROCESS PLANS WILL HURT LOW-INCOME FAMILIES”
From: Opportunity for All
Campaign
Make sure your members of
Congress know that the budget plans about to be taken up by the House will
disproportionately hurt the programs that serve the most vulnerable
Americans. Send a letter to the House of
Representatives explaining your organization's opposition to proposals that
will cap discretionary spending for programs like education, child care, child
nutrition, housing and other programs; drastically cut entitlement spending by
$1.8 trillion over the next ten years
http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/alert.asp?art=328#1
HELP
GENERATE CO-SPONSORS FOR THE HEALTHY FAMILIES ACT
From: National Partnership
for Women and Families
In mid-June, Senator Kennedy
(D-MA) and Representative DeLauro (D-CT) are expected to introduce The Healthy
Families Act. This bill would provide
full-time workers with seven paid sick days a year to be used for their own
medical needs or those of a close family member. In addition, part-time employees would
receive a pro-rata share. Help is needed
to encourage Members of Congress to sign on to the legislation as original co-sponsors.
http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/alert.asp?art=328#2
INTRODUCTION
OF THE CIVIL LIBERTIES RESTORATION ACT
From: Rights Working Group
The Civil Liberties
Restoration Act of 2004 (CLRA) is scheduled to be introduced on Tuesday, June
8. The CLRA would safeguard basic rights
and promote our nation’s safety. It would
move the United
States
forward at this important time by demonstrating to the world that this country
takes seriously the rights of people it detains. If you are a local or national organization
interested in supporting the CLRA, please contact the National Immigration
Forum or the ational Asian Pacific American Legal
Consortium
http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/alert.asp?art=328#3
HOUSE PASSES
PERSONAL REEMPLOYMENT ACCOUNTS OVER FEDERAL JOBLESS BENEFITS
From: National Employment Law
Project
Thursday, June 3, the House
of Representatives took up legislation targeting the nation's jobless
families. Rather than schedule a vote to
reauthorize the federal extension of unemployment benefits, the Republican
leadership of the House of Representatives moved legislation to create a $50
million pilot program of "personal reemployment accounts" (PRAs) for unemployed workers. The PRA legislation -- benefits fewer than
15,000 families while a reauthorization of the federal extension of
unemployment benefits would have helped over one million jobless families.
http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/alert.asp?art=328#4
**Civil Society and
Philanthropy
Volunteer
Management Practices and Retention of Volunteers
A report from the Urban
Institute focuses on charities' adoption of nine volunteer management
practices: supervision and communication, liability coverage, screening and
matching, regular collection of volunteer numbers and hours written policies
and job descriptions, recognition activities, measurement of volunteer impacts,
training and professional development, and training for paid staff in working
with volunteers. The report includes the extent of the adoption of these
practices by charities with different characteristics, and the relationship
between volunteer management practices and retention of volunteers.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8878
**Community Development
HUD Announces
$161.5 Million in Down Payment Assistance for First-Time Homebuyers
The Department of Housing and
Urban Development announced $161.5 million in funding to allow thousands of
low-income families to purchase their first home. The funding will be allocated to more than
400 state and local governments this year and will help first-time homebuyers
overcome the single greatest obstacle to homeownership-the down payment and
closing costs.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-050.cfm
What
Next for Distressed Public Housing?
The Urban Institute's Center
on Metropolitan Housing and Communities has released two major reviews of
research on the HOPE VI experience to date that offer five fundamental lessons
for the next generation of public housing revitalization. The research record strongly
supports continuing a flexible investment initiative like HOPE VI. But HOPE VI
(or a successor) can and should be substantially strengthened based on lessons
learned to date.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8879
Neighborhoods
May Influence Whether Residents Have Asthma
Researchers from Ohio State
University find that along with the usual risk factors for asthma such as
smoking and poverty, another factor that may increase the risk of asthma: a
neighborhood where people live in fear. Although researchers have known that
disadvantaged urban residents are particularly vulnerable to asthma, this new
research shows that specific characteristics of urban neighborhoods - over and
above individual levels of poverty - can influence asthma levels among
residents.
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/neigasth.htm
**Economic Security
State Policy Choices: Supports for
Low-Income Working Families
A Fact Sheet from the
National Center for Children in Poverty finds that if policymakers want to
ensure that work provides a route to family economic self-sufficiency, they
need to get serious about making work pay. Earned income tax credits and work
supports like child care and health benefits can help.
http://lift.nccp.org/pub_swf04.html
The Ultimate Burden of
the Tax Cuts
A joint report of the Urban
Institute, Brookings Tax Policy Center and the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities provides an examination of the effects of the 2001 and 2003 tax
cuts, examining not only who benefits but also who is likely to pick up their
costs once they are inevitably paid for. Low- and middle-income households are
likely to lose significantly once the costs of the tax cuts are offset.
http://www.cbpp.org/6-2-04tax-pr.htm
Administration Memo
Confirms Plans for Budget Cuts in Many Domestic Discretionary Programs in 2006
The Washington Post reported
that the White House Office of Management and Budget has sent a memorandum to
federal departments and agencies directing most of them to include widespread
funding cuts in the fiscal year 2006 budgets that they submit to OMB this
summer. The budget document proposes cuts in nearly every domestic non-entitlement
program in the federal budget in 2006 and subsequent years, except for homeland
security programs.
http://www.cbpp.org/6-1-04bud.htm
**Education
High
School Graduation: Strong Start or Dead End?
A new book warns that the
high school diploma—as elusive as it remains for too many American youth—is no
longer an adequate educational endpoint for any of our youth. Double the
Numbers: Increasing Postsecondary Credentials for Underrepresented Youth issues
a "call to action," urging the U.S. to “double the numbers” of
low-income and minority youth who go to and complete college or some other form
of postsecondary training or education.
http://www.jff.org/jff/newsroom/PR/2004/PR_6_2_2004.html
Affirmative
Action Gets an Affirmative
According to a study from the
Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research students who had more racially
diverse friends and classmates tended to show even higher levels of thinking,
suggesting that long-term exposure to racial diversity may be even more
beneficial to higher-order thought than is immediate immersion in a diverse
environment.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-06/aps-aag060104.php
**Health
Squeezing
SCHIP: States Use Flexibility to Respond to the Ongoing Budget Crisis
Interviews by the Urban
Institute of SCHIP administrators in 13 states indicate that cuts to SCHIP in
FY 2003 were more widespread than in 2002. Virtually all states reduced or
eliminated outreach activities. Four states either froze enrollment or reduced
eligibility thresholds. Half the states raised premiums and copayments
for program participants. Five states either froze or cut provider
reimbursement. Compared with other areas in state budgets, state officials
universally described SCHIP cuts as among the smallest, and last, to be adopted,
reflecting policymakers' strong support of the program.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8883
Many Beneficiaries Still
Face Heavy Costs Under New Medicare Law
According an issue brief from
the Commonwealth Fund, the new Medicare prescription drug law will provide
much-needed help to many beneficiaries, especially those with low incomes. But it’s unclear whether most will benefit in
the long run.
http://www.cmwf.org/media/releases/moon730_release06012004.asp
First Joint Survey of
Health in Canada and the United States Shows Both Countries Report High Level
of Health
According to the first joint
U.S.-Canadian health survey the overwhelming majority of Americans and
Canadians rate their health as good, very good or excellent, but there are
differences in key risk factors and patterns of health care in the two
countries. Overall, Americans were more
likely than Canadians to report that they were very satisfied with health care
(53 percent compared to 44 percent), but findings for uninsured Americans
accounted for significant differences between the countries in a number of
categories.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r040602.htm
**Hunger and Nutrition
13 Million Children Face
Food Insecurity
Washington, D.C. – In
recognition of National Hunger Awareness Day on June 3rd, the Children's
Defense Fund released a report on the effects of child hunger and food
insecurity—the lack of consistent access to enough food to ensure active,
healthy living. CDF's report finds that hunger is leaving many of America's
children behind, with effects that range from health problems to academic
achievement delays and social difficulties.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/pressreleases/040602a.asp
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