Whenever our kids return to school, a severely diminished learning experience awaits them unless the federal government learns an important lesson from the past and significantly boosts state aid — and soon.
The last time that states faced a budget crisis, in the wake of the Great Recession of a decade ago, emergency federal aid closed only about one-quarter of state budget shortfalls....
This week at CBPP, we focused on state budgets and taxes, food assistance, the federal budget, health, and the economy.
On state budgets and taxes, Erica Williams and Cortney Sanders outlined three principles for an anti-racist,...In our new series of brief videos, SNAP (food stamp) participants, policy experts, and others describe how SNAP helps Americans weather crises — including the current health and economic crisis — by supporting workers and those temporarily unemployed,...
SNAP (food stamps) responds quickly to increased need, such as during economic downturns and natural disasters, and the economic crisis spurred by COVID-19 is no exception. Indeed, the rise in the number of SNAP participants in recent weeks is unprecedented, with 2...
As economic projections worsen, so do the likely state budget shortfalls from COVID-19’s economic fallout. We now project shortfalls of $765 billion over three years, based on the new projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of yesterday and Goldman Sachs of last...
The Heroes Act, which the House passed May 15, includes an important SNAP (food stamp) benefit increase that would help families put food on the table when many are struggling and provide stimulus for the economy when it’s most needed. We urge the Senate to quickly approve this SNAP boost.
The severe economic downturn has hit low-income households the hardest, early evidence shows, many...
This week at CBPP, we focused on the economy, state budgets and taxes, health, food assistance, housing, federal taxes, family income support, and Social Security.
On the economy, Robert Greenstein stated that the new package from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would provide
...The “wait and see” approach that Senator John Thune and some other Republicans recommend for providing more state and local fiscal relief is highly unwise. States and localities furloughed or laid off nearly a million workers last month, new...
Sixty-six years after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision found racial segregation in schools unconstitutional, COVID-19 is presenting new challenges to families and education advocates who are still fighting to ensure that states uphold their education funding obligations. The state budget crisis could prompt states to lean heavily on K-12 funding cuts, likely...
One of the best tools to protect access to urgently needed behavioral health care, including mental health and substance use services, is to raise the federal share of Medicaid costs (or “FMAP”). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s new economic relief bill would do that by building on the modest, shorter-term FMAP increases that policymakers provided in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of...
