January 18, 2006
Call on Congress to Vote Against Cuts to Human Needs
Programs
Issue
We have another chance to defeat this year’s budget
reconciliation bill. The House of Representatives, in fact,
is scheduled to vote on the final budget bill on February 1,
one week before the president is scheduled to release his budget.
The vote will pave the way for votes on the two remaining reconciliation
measures: one to cut taxes by as much as $70 billion and one
to increase the national debt limit by $781 billion.
Of the three reconciliation measures, the budget bill has been
the most contentious, due to cuts it makes to programs serving
low- and moderate-income households, cuts that ultimately do
not address the burgeoning deficit. In fact, the net effect
of the three bills will be an increase of the deficit by billions
of dollars. The cuts are particularly harmful to Medicaid,
child support enforcement, foster care, and student loan programs.
Despite these damaging cuts, the budget bill was passed by
the Senate on December 21. Senate lawmakers, however, passed
a slightly different version of the bill (with three minor
modifications) than that passed by the House two days earlier.
House members, therefore, must vote on the bill a final time
before sending it to the president. The first House vote on
the budget reconciliation bill was a close one (212-206),
and the upcoming vote is expected to be close as well. Nine
Republicans voted with Democratic members against the bill.
Six Democratic members and ten Republican members did not vote,
possibly because the voting took place so close to the holiday
recess.
Action Needed
Moderate House Republicans,
a number of whom initially expressed opposition to the bill
but ultimately voted for it, now have the chance to vote their
consciences rather than line up behind their leadership. Your
Member of Congress has the opportunity to vote responsibly
on these budget cuts.
During the National Call-in Week, January 23-27, please call
your Member of Congress and ask him or her to vote no on budget
reconciliation. You can use a toll-free number provided by
the American Friends Service Committee to call the Capitol
Switchboard, which will connect you to your Member of Congress.
Call your Members of Congress toll-free: 800-426-8073
What to Say
As a social worker, I have witnessed with grief and frustration
the loss of life, preventable illness, and human suffering
that result from natural disasters, poverty, and discrimination
as well as from the ordinary life difficulties that can devastate
individuals, families, and communities. I urge you not to finance
more tax cuts for the wealthy on the backs of our nation’s
most vulnerable citizens. Please oppose cuts in federal programs
such as Medicaid, food stamps, educational loans, and child
welfare.
Background
The following Representatives voted against the budget reconciliation
bill in December and we want to make sure they vote against
it again: Reps. Steve Buyer (IN-4), Tim Johnson (IL-15), Steven
LaTourette (OH-14), Jim Leach (IA-2), John McHugh (NY-23),
Bob Ney (OH-18), Ron Paul (TX-14), Christopher Smith (NJ-4),
and Heather Wilson (NM-1).
The following Representatives voted against the House bill,
but voted for the conference report of the budget reconciliation
bill: Reps. Jim Gerlach (PA-6), Nancy Johnson (CT-5), Walter
Jones* (NC-3), Jim Ramstand (MN-3), Christopher Shays (CT-4),
Robert Simmons (CT-2), and John Sweeney (NY-20).
*Rep. Walter Jones was absent for the conference report vote.
If you have a Republican Member of Congress who is not listed
in either grouping, then they voted for both the conference
report and the House bill. They still may change their vote
if given additional information.
Problems with the Conference Report
Medicaid: The conference agreement allows
states to impose substantial and harmful cost-sharing charges
on Medicaid beneficiaries. By allowing both increased
co-payments and the enforcement of these co-payments, the conference
agreement is likely to result in the delay of necessary care
for beneficiaries unable to make their co-payments. This,
in turn, will inevitably result in an increase in unnecessary,
costly, and under-reimbursed hospital admissions to the detriment
of both the patients and the public hospitals.
Additionally, the report requires citizens to show proof of
citizenship to enroll in Medicaid. Therefore, people will either
need to provide a passport or birth certificate. This will
be especially difficult for homeless people or people with
mental illness.
The conference report allows states to deny contraception
to poor women.
TANF and Child Care: Provides only $1 billion
for child care while the costs of child care and implementing
increased work requirements is estimated at $12 billion.
Child Welfare: The conference agreement repeals
a court ruling (in the Rosales case, affecting nine
states) that allowed more grandparents or other relatives to
receive federal foster care payments. Paying kinship families
less is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cut
$590 million in spending over five years and $1.3 billion over
ten years.
Child Support: Federal funding for child
support enforcement is cut by $1.5 billion over 5 years;
they will cost children $8.4 billion in uncollected child
support over the next ten years. There is also a new child
support fee—a new mandatory annual fee for certain
families using public child support enforcement services.
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