BEYOND THE NUMBERS
In Case You Missed It...
This week, we released a statement announcing Sharon Parrott as CBPP’s next president. On January 1, 2021, Parrott will succeed Robert Greenstein, who established the Center in 1981 and has served as its chief executive ever since.
“The Center is one of the nation’s most influential organizations in shaping domestic policy, and Sharon will build on its four decades of achievement to lead it to new heights of effectiveness and impact,” said Kenneth Apfel, CBPP Board Chairman.
Since the last time we rounded up our recent work at CBPP, we focused on poverty and inequality, the economy, federal taxes, health, food assistance, housing, family income support, and state budgets and taxes.
- On poverty and inequality, Arloc Sherman, Chad Stone, Douglas Rice, Michael Leachman, and Claire Zippel examined new Census data on hardship, which underscore continued need for substantial COVID relief. We also updated our tracker of the COVID-19 recession’s effects on food, housing, and employment hardships.
- On the economy, Chad Stone explained why the latest jobs report is bad news for unemployed workers. We also updated our fact sheet noting that struggling families and the economy need a robust, bipartisan COVID relief agreement, our backgrounder on how many weeks of unemployment compensation are available, and our chartbook tracking the post-Great Recession economy.
- On federal taxes, Chuck Marr explained why Congress must help struggling families — as it helped highly indebted companies — by enacting a provision to let workers use their previous-year earnings to calculate their tax Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit amounts. We also updated our explainers on marginal and average tax rates and on tax exemptions, deductions, and credits.
- On health, Jessica Schubel wrote on how a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services could wreak havoc on health programs and harm people. Jennifer Wagner detailed how states can act now to keep Medicaid enrollees covered when the public health emergency ends. We also updated our Sabotage Watch, which tracks efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act.
- On food assistance, we updated our fact sheet explaining how states are using new flexibility in SNAP to respond to COVID-19 challenges.
- On housing, Douglas Rice called on policymakers to pass more funding to avert cuts to the Housing Choice Voucher program.
- On family income support, Laura Meyer and Ife Floyd updated their report on how cash assistance should reach millions more families to lessen hardship, and that policies rooted in racism have limited families’ access. We also updated a related policy brief, as well as fact sheets on trends in state TANF-to-poverty ratios.
- On state budgets and taxes, Michael Leachman stated that the Mississippi governor is irresponsibly proposing to repeal the state’s income tax.
Chart of the Week — Adults in Households With Children Face Higher Household Hardship
A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts this past week. Here are some of the highlights:
In Blue States and Red, Pandemic Upends Public Services and Jobs
New York Times
December 4, 2020
Putting more food on more tables is a job for Congress
The Philadelphia Inquirer
December 4, 2020
States and Cities Plead for More Time to Spend Federal Covid Aid
Bloomberg
December 4, 2020
McConnell, Schumer seem far apart on unemployment benefits, stimulus proposals
CNBC
December 2, 2020
Housing advocates brace for eviction crisis
National Journal
December 1, 2020
50 Million Americans Could Face Food Insecurity By Year's End
CNN
November 30, 2020
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