CLASP
The Center for Law and Social Policy
This statement can be attributed to Rricha deCant, director of legislative affairs at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
April 10, 2025, Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a budget resolution bill by a vote of 216-214 that was passed by the Senate last week. Its passage highlights the willingness of Congressional leaders to fund tax breaks for the rich and corporations and drive up the deficit through massive Medicaid cuts of $880 billion and SNAP cuts of $230 billion.
The proposal would also slash other public benefit programs that people with low incomes rely on. Instead of passing a budget resolution that would help families grapple with rising costs in an already chaotic economy, Congressional leaders are making it more difficult for families, children, and workers to have access to health care, food, and other essentials.
This measure now opens the door for Congress to write a budget reconciliation bill that could have far-reaching impacts on the lives of millions of Americans for decades to come.
By Jesse Fairbanks, Amira Iwuala, Parker Gilkesson Davis, and Kathy Tran
In 2021, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) began a community engagement effort called Community-Driven Policies and Practices (CDPP). The project was led by CLASP staff and a steering committee of community members known as the Core Collective. Together, we facilitated a series of power-building sessions in Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Tribal Nations in the Pacific Northwest. Our goal in these sessions was to create a safe, inspiring space for people experiencing poverty to dream up policies with the potential to deliver economic justice and strategies to advance them. The sessions culminated in an advocacy plan to implement a policy goal that each group believed would advance their vision for economic justice.
The first half of this report summarizes CDPP, including the project’s guiding principles, planning team, and engagement strategy. This section also spotlights the advocacy plans that community members drafted while participating in CDPP power-building sessions.
Using CDPP as a case study, the second half of this report explores best practices for engaging people with lived experience of poverty in nonprofit advocacy, based on the ideas of CLASP staff, the Core Collective, and community participants. Each grouping of recommendations is divided into actions that could be carried out by staff leading community engagement and structural changes that would need to be spearheaded by leaders in nonprofits. The recommendations for nonprofit leadership require large-scale changes to the policies, practices, and norms that traditionally govern nonprofit advocacy. We acknowledge that most of these structural changes have not been implemented by CLASP or similar nonprofits.
The recommendations fall into five main categories, all of which are essential goals that nonprofits should keep in mind when engaging community members:
- Building Trust and Secure Relationships
- Subverting Power Dynamics Rooted in Systemic Injustice
- Partnering with Community from Design Through Implementation and Evaluation
- Recruiting and Onboarding Community Members
- Creating Valuable Experiences for Community Members
The 50+ recommendations in this report are not an exhaustive list of all engagement strategies available to nonprofits. Community engagement is a boundless practice shaped by grassroots leaders over time, with roots in Indigenous democratic decision-making. Our intention with this report is to compile recommendations that, in the experience of CLASP staff, promote meaningful community engagement led by nonprofits or governments.
Through CDPP, we were able to assess the merit of a national nonprofit practicing direct, place-based community engagement. We found that direct connections to national nonprofits can provide value to community members through professional development opportunities, access to people in positions of systemic power, and resources to sustain their advocacy. Place-based projects led by a national organization can expand the tools available to local groups to make large-scale policy change. The value that national organizations can provide community members, however, can be stunted by long-standing norms within nonprofits and philanthropy. This report argues that the individual actions of nonprofit staff can only go so far to ensure meaningful community engagement. The entire system underpinning nonprofit advocacy needs reform to sustain staffs’ efforts to create valuable experiences for community members that inspire them to continue fighting for important policy changes.
CLASP President and Executive Director Indivar Dutta-Gupta testified to the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Taxation and Oversight about the Child Tax Credit, its history and track record, and what Congress should do now.
Read Dutta-Gupta’s response to a Question for the Record from the hearing here.
Watch the oral testimony below:
>>Watch the full hearing here.
By Sean Ericson
(Excerpt)
“Once you start to get into the reasons why people aren’t able to access these benefits, oftentimes, it’s not because they’re ineligible. It’s because they can’t find the information they need; they’re not sure if they’re eligible and they’re afraid of some sort of negative consequence if they apply and are rejected,” said Juliana Zhou, a policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, a liberal research and advocacy group. “That’s often the case with immigrant communities, so they just won’t chance it.”
Read the full article.
By Washington Journal
In case you missed it, CLASP President and Executive Director Indivar Dutta-Gupta appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning for a 45-minute segment exploring key components of the Inflation Reduction Act that support people with low incomes and communities of color. He also addressed the urgent need for Congress to act on policies like the expanded Child Tax Credit, paid family and medical leave, employment programs for young people, expansion of Medicaid, child care and other care programs, those that address the student debt crisis, and more.
By Helaine Olen
(Excerpt)
Two recently released reports — one from the Brookings Institution, the other from the Center for Law and Social Policy — show how transformative the expanded child tax credit, passed as part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan in the late winter of last year, was for millions of American families, providing not just money but security on multiple fronts.
Read the full article here.
By Parker Gilkesson
Public benefits fraud committed by people experiencing poverty is quite rare. For example, in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the federal government has found an overpayment rate of only 0.1 percent, or just a dime for every $100. I was invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Government Operations in a March 31 hearing on “Tackling Improper Payments for more Equitable Service Delivery.” During the hearing, other experts raised concerns that state agencies aren’t prioritizing improper payments. However, my experience as a caseworker has only underscored that we have this all wrong.
The reality is that despite the rarity of fraud, legislators and state agencies DO prioritize fraud prevention. But last month’s hearing made clear that states are looking for fraud in all the wrong places.
One of the other experts at the hearing, Linda Miller who focuses on fraud risk management, discussed how the main actors in fraud, particularly in unemployment benefits, are international rings, cyber security hackers, and identity theft operations from other countries. These entities are stealing the identities of people dead or alive to apply for benefits. But none of these actors are individuals experiencing poverty. However, all current fraud prevention measures that states use specifically target individuals.
There are millions of dollars in grants and targeted funding for fraud prevention and “program integrity.” SNAP and other benefit programs have rigorous application and eligibility processes, and caseworkers are often better trained to look for fraud than to provide trauma-informed care or to refer families to critical assistance addressing the many challenges of living in poverty. I know from my experience that caseworkers are very likely to be penalized or threatened with losing their jobs for accidentally approving recipients for more benefits than they are eligible for. Yet they aren’t penalized for denying or shortchanging benefits to eligible people.
By Ashley Burnside
People with disabilities are critical members of our communities. They are students, workers, and parents. They have jobs and hobbies, and just like anyone else, they want to live in their own homes near their loved ones. But our healthcare system does not make this easy to do for people who need supports in completing daily activities, like getting dressed, bathing, or taking their medication. Not all people with disabilities need this kind of support, but for those who do, having direct service providers who can come to their home to help them engage in those kinds of activities allows them to live in their communities with dignity, rather than only having options of living in institutional care settings.
This kind of support can be provided through home and community-based services (HCBS) under Medicaid. For people living with disabilities, HCBS provides long-term services and supports in the individual’s home, rather than in institutional settings. Providing these services to people in their own homes and communities can reduce social isolation for people with disabilities and is also cheaper than receiving such care in institutional settings. But HCBS is extremely underfunded and not available to everyone who needs it.
Medicaid provides access to institutional long-term services and supports as a mandatory benefit, but HCBS services are an optional benefit. This means it is largely up to states to decide who they provide HCBS services to, rather than ensuring it is available for all individuals who need it. Almost 850,000 people with disabilities have been left on waiting lists, sometimes for close to a decade, trying to access the HCBS services that they need.
Demand for HCBS was already high before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rising healthcare needs stemming from the disease increased demand even more. When people with disabilities are forced to wait for their HCBS services, their loved ones may have to cut work hours to provide such care for their family member, or they may be forced to live in an institution rather than in their community. This Medicaid HCBS policy is outdated, ableist, and doesn’t meet the needs of our community members with disabilities.
Access to HCBS supports should be a guaranteed service for people with disabilities who need it – not an option that the lucky few can receive after years on a wait list. This is especially urgent following the COVID-19 public health crisis, which disproportionately impacted residents and staff at nursing homes and other long-term congregate care facilities (such as assisted living facilities). More than 30 percent of COVID-19 deaths nationally have been among residents or staff in such institutions. Living at home reduces the risk of mass disease transmission among people with disabilities and healthcare workers. The health, independence, and happiness of people with disabilities and their loved ones are improved when they have accessible HCBS options.
Providing increased funding towards HCBS services also benefits family members of those with disabilities and the direct care service professionals who help individuals with disabilities complete daily tasks, like bathing and preparing food. Direct care workers are underpaid, and face high rates of turnover. The average wage for these workers is less than $11.52 per hour, despite the essential care they provide for people with disabilities. Direct care workers are disproportionately women and people of color, meaning they already face a significant wage gap and unequal access to wealth. When direct care workers have high turnover rates, the care needs will likely fall on the family members of individuals with disabilities. Increasing the wages for direct care workers is essential to promoting wage equity, valuing the contributions of care workers, and supporting people with disabilities.
Congress should include additional funding for HCBS services in the economic reconciliation package as one way to invest in people with disabilities and to bolster the care economy. This should be in addition to other investments that support people with disabilities, and other investments towards family care. The House-passed version of the Build Back Better Act included $150 billion in funding for HCBS services, which is a positive step in the right direction. President Biden and the administration should continue to advocate for the importance of HCBS investments for people with disabilities. We are all better off when we make these investments in home and community-based services (HCBS).
By Emma Loop
(Excerpt)
“We had to input the wrong information to get the right output. So everything you’re capturing is incorrect,” Gilkesson, who now works as a senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, told the Washington Examiner. “And that’s all the state could afford at the time.”
Then, there was what Gilkesson called the “black box,” a part of the computer system that accepted verification information from applicants, such as proof of income. “It was always known it may go through, it may not, it may be lost,” she said. “And if that happens, it’s as if you never submitted anything at all.”
Read the full article here.
March
“We are absolutely thrilled to announce that Indi will lead our 53-year-old national organization into the next phase of growth,” said LaVeeda M. Battle, Esq., a leading civil rights attorney, and chair of CLASP’s Board of Trustees. “After conducting a nationwide search and assessing a strong pool of candidates, the Board and staff were thoroughly impressed by Indi’s formidable talent and skills, as well as his clear passion for advancing economic and racial justice.”
Indi has held senior roles at or advised the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the National Academy of Social Insurance, Liberation in a Generation, the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, and Freedman Consulting. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Center for American Progress and D.C. Hunger Solutions. He has also served as a volunteer policy advisor for the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and President Biden.
“I’m honored and delighted to be joining CLASP – an organization with a half-century track record of marshaling lived experience, careful analysis, technical assistance, and strategic advocacy to advance racial and economic justice,” said Indi Dutta-Gupta. “Olivia Golden is leaving CLASP in an extraordinary position after years of steady growth that has expanded its impact and reach. I look forward to building upon CLASP’s longstanding work at the federal, state, and local level that has for decades improved policies, programs, and practices for many of the families and communities in this country that have been the most marginalized and excluded.”
In 2019, CLASP celebrated its 50th year as a national, nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on economic and social justice advocacy. We work with federal, state, and local policymakers, advocates, and partners to advance policies that reduce poverty, improve the lives of people with low incomes, and create pathways to economic security for everyone. Our work is rooted in a belief that poverty in America is inextricably tied to systemic racism.
CLASP has been on the front lines of both fighting back against harmful administrative and legislative proposals, particularly during the Trump administration, and advancing a vision that is both practical and bold. In the past two years, CLASP has responded to the immediate economic devastation of the COVID pandemic, while also shaping and implementing a longer-term agenda. Through the whole period, CLASP has expanded its leadership of major, high-impact collaborations – such as the 500+ member Protecting Immigrant Family coalition – and deepened its close relationships with on-the-ground leaders and people with lived experience of poverty.
Under Olivia Golden’s leadership, CLASP grew from an organization of about 30 people and a $6 million budget to its current scale of about 50 staff and a $10 million annual budget. During her tenure as executive director, CLASP has addressed a broad range of issues, including adding a new policy team focused on issues facing immigrant families, in addition to expanded work on child care; economic security programs; education, labor, and worker justice; and youth and young adult policy.
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The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is a national, nonpartisan, anti-poverty organization advancing policy solutions for people with low incomes. Because poverty in America is inextricably tied to systemic racism, CLASP focuses its policy and advocacy efforts for economic and racial justice on addressing systemic racism as the primary cause of poverty for communities of color.