BEYOND THE NUMBERS
In Case You Missed It…
This week at CBPP, we focused on food assistance, poverty and inequality, federal taxes, health, housing, and the economy.
- On food assistance, Robert Greenstein urged the House to craft a new, bipartisan farm bill. Elizabeth Wolkomir listed four ways the House made the now-defeated farm bill’s bad SNAP (formerly food stamp) provisions even worse, and she described how the bill’s costly child support requirement would take away food assistance from needy families. Dottie Rosenbaum explained why the bill’s SNAP changes are a bad deal for states and low-income households. Stacy Dean warned that a House-passed amendment to the bill worsened the harmful SNAP provisions.
- On poverty and inequality, Danilo Trisi and Guillermo Herrera described how the Trump Administration’s actions against immigrant families have harmed children by increasing fear and contributing to the loss of needed assistance. Chad Stone, Trisi, Arloc Sherman, and Roderick Taylor updated their guide on historical trends in income inequality.
- On federal taxes, Roderick Taylor pointed out that the 2017 tax law used money for corporate tax cuts that could have been spent on infrastructure. He also noted that the new estate tax cut from the 2017 tax law will encourage more wealthy individuals to skirt the capital gains tax.
- On health, Sarah Lueck explained that funding in the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill for association health plans could weaken health coverage and raise premiums. Hannah Katch detailed why a revised bill partially repealing the Medicaid exclusion for institutional substance use treatment falls far short. We released a brief re-emphasizing that the Cassidy-Graham bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would cause millions to lose coverage.
- On housing, Douglas Rice explained that a House funding bill for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offsets its own important advances in several ways. Earlier, he argued that Congress should increase HUD funding in 2019 to prevent voucher cuts and help children escape poverty. Barbara Sard highlighted a bipartisan House proposal that would help housing vouchers improve children’s outcomes. Alison Bell warned that a Republican proposal would rescind funds that make public housing safe for residents.
- On the economy, we updated our backgrounder on how many weeks of unemployment compensation are available.
Chart of the Week – Moving with Voucher to Lower-Poverty Neighborhoods While Young Children Improves Key Adult Outcomes
A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts recently. Here are some highlights:
SNAP Back To Reality
NPR’s “The Indicator”
May 17, 2018
Few Will Be Spared From Michigan's Medicaid Work Requirements
CityLab
May 16, 2018
Commentary: SNAP has helped millions of families — including mine
Chicago Tribune
May 16, 2018
A farm bill to harm food assistance
Akron Beacon Journal
May 15, 2018
Which Poor People Shouldn’t Have to Work for Aid?
New York Times
May 15, 2018
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