In Focus

May 16, 2013 | Permalink »

The Most Important Problem Facing Children in the US Today

In the early 1950's, polio crippled tens of thousands of people in the United States each year, shut down public facilities, and struck fear among parents everywhere. But thanks to a massive public health effort that reached into every community, by 1979 polio had been eliminated from the U.S.

What if we tackled child poverty with the same determination and commitment that we put into eliminating polio? At a time when one in five children lives in poverty, income inequality is growing, and the severe negative long-term consequences of childhood poverty are known, the analogy is not farfetched.

This week, the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) Task Force on Childhood Poverty declared that childhood poverty is "the most important problem facing children in the US today" and issued a Strategic Road Map for addressing it as a public health issue. The APA Task Force commits to raising the voice of pediatricians to build public support for policies that will both reduce childhood poverty and address the negative effects of poverty on children's physical and mental health and development. This builds on similar statements from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

An Important Announcement From CLASP

by Joe Onek

Today, I am proud to announce the appointment of Olivia Golden as CLASP's new executive director. She will succeed current ED Alan Houseman, who will step down at the end of the year after more than three decades of distinguished leadership. Olivia will join us in August.

Olivia is absolutely the right person to lead CLASP at this important moment -- both for us as an organization and for a country carving out priorities for the future. From our roots as a pioneering public interest law firm in 1969, CLASP has become the leading voice on national policy for low-income people. With her background, Olivia is a natural fit to build on Alan's and our staff's tremendous work and advance new policy solutions that help families and individuals rise out of poverty.

Over her 35-year career, including roles at nonprofits and in the public sector, Olivia has consistently delivered results for low-income children and families. During her eight years in senior executive roles at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) -- including as Assistant Secretary -- during the Clinton Administration, Olivia was a key player in designing and implementing Early Head Start and tripling the level of funding for child care.

Under her leadership, the D.C. Children and Family Services Agency emerged from federal court receivership and markedly improved the lives of children in the District. Olivia is currently an institute fellow at the Urban Institute, where she leads research and policy initiatives on families' economic security and children's well-being. She's also led initiatives on the impact of federal health and social welfare programs in states and on the implications of health reform for low-income children.

Olivia's strong track record and nuanced understanding of the issues that matter to poor Americans will allow her to hit the ground running when she joins CLASP this summer.

This is an exciting time for our organization. In the coming months, we look forward to honoring Alan's outstanding achievements over his many years at CLASP, while integrating Olivia's talents to advance the causes we all care so deeply about.

To find out more, read today's press release.

Best regards,

Joe Onek
Chair of the CLASP Board of Directors

Jan 02, 2013 | Permalink »

The Fiscal Cliff Deal: What Changed and What's Still in Play

By Elizabeth Lower-Basch

As has been widely reported, due to last-minute Congressional action, the so-called "fiscal cliff" has been avoided with the passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) of 2012. However, some taxes did go up on January 1, and the automatic, across the board budget cuts known as sequestration have only been postponed, not prevented. Here's a handy guide to what happened to programs and taxes that affect low-income people, and what's still in play.

WHAT HAS BEEN EXTENDED

Federal Unemployment Benefits were continued for the duration of 2013. In the absence of this extension, more than 2 million workers would have lost benefits this week, and millions more would have been prematurely cut off over the next year. Note that this does not mean all workers currently receiving benefits will continue to receive them all year. The maximum duration of federal unemployment benefits is based on each state's unemployment rate, and thus is likely to drop over the year as the economy recovers.
In addition to the permanent extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for all but the highest income households, the ATRA extended the improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC) for five more years. These improvements, first passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 lifted 1.5 million people out of poverty in 2010 and lessened the severity of poverty for nearly 15 million others. The partially refundable American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), which helps students pay for college, was also extended for five years.

The ATRA also extended the Farm Bill for one year, without making any changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps).

WHAT HAS ENDED

The temporary reduction of employee payroll taxes from 6.2 percent of earnings to 4.2 percent was not extended. This "payroll tax holiday" was in place during both 2011 and 2012, replacing the Make Work Pay tax credit that was part of ARRA. Low-income people, who are likely to live paycheck to paycheck, will feel the loss of the payroll tax credit with their first paychecks.

WHAT HAS BEEN POSTPONED

Congress agreed to postpone the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration for two months. If these had taken effect, they would have cut spending by over eight percent for many programs that serve low-income individuals and families, including job training and education programs, WIC, Head Start, and many more.

However, when the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, debate will immediately turn to how to reduce the deficit and avoid sequestration. House Republicans have already said that they believe this should be done without any further revenue increases and are likely to return to the proposals they passed repeatedly in 2012 that would impose deep and harmful cuts on SNAP, Medicaid and other programs serving low-income individuals and families. The House Republicans are threatening to refuse to raise the "debt ceiling," the legal limit on how much the United States can borrow, unless President Obama agrees to their demands. If the debt ceiling is not raised to match the spending obligations that Congress has already approved, the U.S. would default on its obligations, causing deep damage to the economy. President Obama has said that he will not negotiate on this basis, and has called on Congress to replace the sequester with balanced deficit reduction, including both revenue increases and spending cuts.

While we can breathe a sigh of relief over avoiding a drop off the cliff, there is no time to rest. We must let policymakers and opinion leaders know that it is unacceptable to reduce the deficit by targeting the most vulnerable and that it is outrageous to hold the entire economy hostage. In this season of resolutions, we must resolve to stand up for those whose voices are rarely heard.