Children and families struggling to make ends meet need more than just a one-time payment. Families need a larger and recurring monthly payment of $2,000 a month for every adult and child for the duration of the economic downturn. Families with children are disproportionately feeling the effects of this crisis. We all benefit when children and their families are fully supported.
As organizations dedicated to promoting the health of our nation’s children and pregnant women, we strongly urge Congress to protect and strengthen Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as part of any forthcoming legislative efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic and the anticipated subsequent recovery period.
As Congress looks to its next round of legislation we must cast a wider net and help everyone with extraordinary expenses. It makes sense to extend relief to keep businesses afloat and help keep wages flowing, and it is essential to fund state and local governments. At the same time, we must also keep families afloat through recurring direct payments, expanded unemployment insurance, and food/housing aid to those in need.
CDF joined other national and state organizations in opposition to the two costly tax hand-outs to wealthy business owners and corporations included in the CARES Act and to urge you to repeal these provisions. Such businesses have the greatest capacity to weather the current economic disaster. Aid for this privileged group would be better spent on those suffering most from the pandemic.
CDF joined other leading organizations to encourage Congress to build on past bipartisan efforts and ensure all individuals have equitable access to testing and treatment for COVID-19; equip states and localities with sufficient financial support to combat the crisis; provide protection and support to the health care workforce and others on the frontlines of the pandemic; assure access and capacity in the health system; and protect against high and unexpected health care costs.
The federal response to the COVID-19 crisis, including the Families First and the CARES Acts, left many low- and moderate-income immigrants out of the public health and stimulus policies. This exclusion threatens the well being of immigrants, their families - which include millions of U.S. citizen children - and our communities as a whole. This omission will greatly undermine the nation’s ability to overcome this unprecedented crisis.
The federal response to the COVID-19 crisis, including the Families First and the CARES Acts, left many low- and moderate-income immigrants out of the public health and stimulus policies. This exclusion threatens the well being of immigrants, their families - which include millions of U.S. citizen children - and our communities as a whole. This omission will greatly undermine the nation’s ability to overcome this unprecedented crisis.
Denying eligible people needed COVID-19 response services weakens public health and the economy. We call on Congress to prevent such exclusions by including specific language prohibiting discrimination in all COVID-19 response bills.
While the CARES Act was a strong start, we are deeply concerned that children in mixed-immigration status families (those with both citizen and noncitizen members) have been excluded from critical relief. These children comprise one in four of all children in the United States, and the vast majority are U.S. citizens. It is simply unacceptable to leave them out of the COVID-19 response. Doing so will not only put more children at risk of falling into poverty but also greatly undermine our nation’s ability to overcome this crisis.
We believe that the long-term impact of COVID-19 and the outcomes of future pandemics will be catastrophic if we do not provide robust investments through annual appropriations. Therefore, we urge Congress to commit to improving the lives of Americans by significantly boosting the allocation for the Labor-HHS-Education bill for FY 2021 to support needed services for the American public.