Latest news with #SupplementalNutritionalAssistanceProgram
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Homelessness up again in New Jersey, as federal cuts loom
A homeless encampment sits in the woods off the canal path along the Delaware River. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor) Homelessness in New Jersey surged 8% since last year, new figures show, a jump that comes as federal cuts threaten food and housing assistance and other Medicaid benefits for thousands of residents. Affordable housing advocates identified 13,748 people who were living in shelters, hotels, or on the street Jan. 28 during the 'Point in Time' count, an annual enumeration done every January of the state's homeless population. That's about 1,068 people more than advocates counted last year, and the highest number recorded since 2014, when the state's homeless population stood at 13,900, according to Monarch Housing Associates, the nonprofit that coordinates the count. Most — 11,753 people — were living in shelters, hotels or motels, transitional housing, or safe haven programs, Monarch reported. But advocates also counted almost 2,000 people living outside, in vacant or abandoned buildings, or in other locations not meant for human habitation, with such unsheltered homelessness more than doubling in New Jersey since 2022. Sixteen percent of those counted were considered chronically homeless. Federal cuts to critical safety nets will only make things worse, with cuts implemented in a recently passed spending bill and proposed for the next federal budget threatening to 'destroy the very infrastructure we rely on to support our most vulnerable neighbors,' said Taiisa Kelly, Monarch's CEO. 'This is happening at a time when we are seeing increasing affordability issues, increases in unsheltered homelessness, and more communities criminalizing homelessness,' Kelly said. She called on policymakers to invest in solutions proven to reduce homelessness, including housing assistance strategies known as rapid rehousing and housing first, which place people in permanent housing and typically come with support services like financial assistance and landlord mediation. Homelessness has steadily risen in New Jersey since 2021, with an average increase of 14% annually, said Katelyn Ravensbergen, a senior associate at Monarch. 'While our systems are working to connect everyone they can with stable housing, the number of households entering homelessness is unfortunately increasing at a rate that outpaces the expansion of housing opportunities and other supports,' Ravensbergen said. 'This issue will be further exacerbated if federal programs historically used to rapidly rehouse these families are reduced or eliminated as proposed.' Under the federal budget bill President Donald Trump signed July 4, about 350,000 residents are expected to lose Medicaid coverage and 424,000 families likely will see some or all of their monthly Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits end, advocates said. Congress members are now developing budgets for federal agencies for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Funding for housing and homeless service programs is expected to shrink, with some programs targeted for elimination altogether. That includes the Home Investment Partnerships Program, which funds the development of affordable housing. New Jersey and its counties and municipalities received $34.7 million in funding from that program last year, according to Monarch. This year's count also showed several demographic disparities persist: Families with at least one child accounted for about a third of those experiencing homelessness. Veterans continue to struggle with homelessness, with 543 veterans counted, representing a 4.8% increase since last year. Black people continue to experience homelessness at disproportionately higher rates than people of other racial or ethnic identities, comprising 47.4% of the homeless population, even though just 12% of New Jersey residents are Black. Essex County had the largest homeless population statewide. Advocates chalked the increase in unsheltered homelessness up to the overburdened shelter system. In recent months, shelters have operated at more than 90% of their capacity every day, and they cannot accommodate rising homelessness, advocates say. The latest count reveals the human toll of the worsening housing affordability crisis, said Michael Callahan, director of the state homelessness prevention office. 'The data confirms what our communities have long known: homelessness is being driven not just by poverty, but by deep structural inequities, including systemic racism and the dramatic shortage of affordable homes,' Callahan said. 'It is a call to action for bolder, better-targeted investment in prevention, housing, and justice.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Solve the daily Crossword
Business Upturn
22-07-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' Sacrifices Coal Country for Politics
By GlobeNewswire Published on July 22, 2025, 21:41 IST Washington, D.C., July 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On July 4, President Donald Trump signed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' (OBBBA) into law. This sweeping bill repeals clean energy and manufacturing investments and initiatives, and cuts funding for programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). The bill includes several provisions that will negatively impact coal communities by cutting off access to programs designed to revitalize and diversify the economies of coal-dependent areas while creating good jobs. 'Donald Trump left coal communities out in the cold during his first term and he's doing it again now. He talks a big game about defending coal communities, but his words are empty and his actions tell the real story,' said BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director Jason Walsh. 'Trump isn't interested in policies that will help the workers and communities bearing the brunt of the energy transition. Instead, he's dismantling them and feeding families false hope just to help his rich friends get richer.' Contact If you have any questions, need additional information, or would like to set up an interview with one of our policy experts, please contact our Press Secretary, Justin Jackson at [email protected] or (951) 214-9108. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Background The 'Big Beautiful Bill Act' signed into law by Donald Trump is yet another part of his agenda that serves as a direct attack on coal workers and communities. This bill accelerates the administration's efforts to wipe out critical protections for miners, dismantle job-creating investments, and disrupt the economic future of coal communities across the country. OBBBA is a Direct Attack on Progress in Coal Communities The bill eliminates programs that have created union jobs, driven private investment, and safeguarded public and personal health. It includes deep cuts to the tax credits that support clean energy development and domestic manufacturing nationwide and essentially voids the tax bonus specifically targeted toward fossil fuel communities. In addition, it reverses the major progress already underway from the once-in-a-generation investments delivered through the Inflation Reduction Act—just as coal communities are beginning to feel the impact of those long-overdue benefits. The OBBBA could be devastating to coal communities. The bill: Butchered clean energy tax credits, nullifying the bonus that specifically incentivizes developing clean energy projects in energy communities. Killed remaining funds for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund putting the Green Bank for Rural America in jeopardy even if the courts unfreeze their illegally withheld funds. Turned the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment Financing loan program into the 'Energy Dominance' loan program, diverting the attention of the program from reinvesting in long-term clean energy solutions to propping up financially struggling coal and natural gas plants. Expanded the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit to subsidize the production of metallurgical coal. Currently, the majority of metallurgical coal mined in the United States is exported. Companies will face no labor standards or requirements for the coal to be sold domestically to claim the full value of the tax credit. Other actions by the administration: Continues to withhold approximately $500 million from the Green Bank for Rural America, a recipient of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards that is dedicated to using its lending power to drive investments into rural communities and coal communities. Withheld grant funding for clean energy projects on mine lands, a program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Select projects have begun to move forward, though some still have not. Those projects face further headwinds due to the budget bill killing clean energy incentives. The BlueGreen Alliance Is Holding Trump and Congress Accountable The Trump administration and Congress don't want to create jobs, lower energy costs, and build a better future. If they did, they would listen to communities, not ignore them. Their actions don't just undercut progress—they undermine decades of work to secure legacy and hard-fought-for investments for coal communities. The BlueGreen Alliance is ringing the alarm. We're tracking every vote, flagging every broken promise, highlighting each investment, and calling out elected officials who put donors over workers. Coal communities deserve better and we're making sure to hold elected officials accountable. Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash GlobeNewswire provides press release distribution services globally, with substantial operations in North America and Europe.
The Hill
13-07-2025
- Business
- The Hill
‘One big beautiful bill,' and 4 Republicans who abandoned their principles
On July 4, amid fanfare and flyovers, President Trump signed his 'one big beautiful bill.' The legislation reduces taxes, increases appropriations for the military, border security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — while cutting spending on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill's $4.5 trillion decrease in revenues and $1.2 trillion increase in spending will add $3.3 trillion over the next decade to the already astronomical $36 trillion national debt. Despite Trump's claims, the bill is extremely unpopular. Five recent polls found net approval ratings ranging from minus-19 percentage points to minus-29 points for the legislation. 'The more [Americans] learn about this bill, they hate it just as much,' declared Harry Enten, CNN's data analyst. Many Americans haven't yet realized that the tax cuts and estate tax changes, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy, have been made permanent, while the exemption on workers' tips and overtime and reductions on taxes to Social Security benefits will expire in 2028. Most are unaware that, in an attempt to minimize Republican losses in the midterms, legislators delayed until 2027 implementation of the Medicaid cuts (which will result in 11.8 million Americans losing their health insurance) and that reductions in the federal share of SNAP costs won't kick in until 2027. Opposition from so-called Republican 'moderates' and 'deficit hawks' initially appeared sufficient to defeat or at least force substantial revisions of the bill. But virtually all of them caved. For once, Elon Musk had it right. The 'big beautiful bill,' Musk wrote, is a 'disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong. You know it.' Here are profiles of four Republicans who shelved their principles. Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), whose district contains one of the nation's highest percentages of Medicaid recipients, stated unequivocally that he would not support legislation 'that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.' Nonetheless, he voted for the House bill. Valadao then expressed concerns about changes in the Senate: 'I've been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid, puts critical funding at risk, or threatens the stability of healthcare providers.' Although the Senate reduced Medicaid appropriations by almost a trillion dollars and cut almost in half the tax states can impose on private healthcare providers, a 'vital stream' of income for the program, Valadao voted for the final bill. It 'was not an easy decision,' Valadao said, but 'no piece of legislation is perfect.' The Senate bill, he claimed, 'does preserve the program for its intended recipients — children, pregnant women, the disabled and elderly.' And it included a fund to give rural hospitals a few years to adjust to reduced revenues. Going forward, Valadao promised to work hard to identify and mitigate risks. In December 2024, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) did not accede to President-Elect Trump's demand that Republicans raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion dollars. 'I'm absolutely sickened,' he proclaimed, 'by a party that campaigned on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible.' This spring, however, Roy voted for the reconciliation bill, which included that $5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling and added trillions to the deficit, after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) agreed to advance implementation of the work requirement in Medicaid from 2029 to 2026. 'Mediocre but passable,' he said, the bill still needed 'massive improvements if we are to make a dent in our deficit or to change the trajectory of this country.' The Senate 'failed us,' Roy claimed. We can 'amend it, send it back, fix it … Happy to stay here every day until we get it right.' Yet within days, Roy announced he was convinced the Trump administration would use executive orders and other legislation 'to ameliorate those areas' made worse by the Senate — and voted for the final bill. Asked about Musk's characterization of the House bill, Sen Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) replied, 'He's telling the truth.' The legislation doesn't 'bend the deficit curve down. It supports it going up.' Johnson indicated 'there's no way' he would support a bill that sustained this 'new normal.' He was untroubled by the president's threat that anyone who opposed his bill would face a primary challenge: 'I'd be happy to be done with politics.' After meeting with Trump and members of his staff, however, Johnson indicated he was satisfied they were 'committed' to reducing federal spending to pre-pandemic levels: 'A rigorous effort will soon be announced,' he added, 'to review every program and every line of the federal budget, looking for ways to… put America on the path to fiscal sustainability.' Johnson voted for a Senate bill that added about a trillion dollars more to the national debt than the House bill. After the Senate passed Trump's bill, a reporter asked Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) about the assertion by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that instead of joining him, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to defeat the legislation, she engineered 'a bailout for Alaska at the expense of the rest of the rest of the country.' After a long pause, Murkowski, who had 'made very clear' in June that 'we cannot go forward with a bill that makes cuts to Medicare,' replied, 'I know that in many parts of the country there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill … But when I saw the direction that this is going — you know you can either say, 'I don't like it' and not try to help my state, or you can roll up your sleeves.' Murkowski used her leverage to delay the requirement that states with high food stamp error rates, including Alaska, contribute more to the cost of benefits. Alaska and Hawaii received waivers of food stamp work requirements based on high unemployment rates in their states. And the bill provided tax relief for whaling boat captains. 'This has been an awful process,' Murkowski explained, 'a frantic race to meet an artificial deadline.' As the legislation returned to the House, she expressed her 'sincere hope that this is not the final product.' While she had made improvements for Alaska, this bill 'is not good enough for the rest of the nation — and we all know it.' It 'needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the president's desk.' In the months before the 2026 elections, Democrats will almost certainly be quoting Valadao, Roy, Johnson and Murkowski, and making the point that promises by allegedly principled Republican politicians are nothing but 'sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tarrant Area Food Bank fights hunger amid historic SNAP cut proposals
The Brief The Tarrant Area Food Bank is partnering with local farmers for a summer market, providing fresh produce to the community. These efforts come as proposed federal cuts could reduce SNAP benefits by an estimated $300 billion through 2034, which would be the largest cut to the program in history. If adopted, the cuts would significantly increase demand on local food banks, which are already seeing high need. FORT WORTH, Texas - The Tarrant Area Food Bank started a summer partnership to provide access to fresh produce. Now more than ever, the food bank is concerned about proposed cuts to federal benefits and the possible impact on North Texans. Local perspective Several local growers are at the farmers' market with freshly grown produce. It's the Tarrant Area Food Bank's way of supporting these small farmers and providing healthy food to the community. It comes at a time when there could be major changes at the federal level as it applies to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP benefits. The food bank earlier today hosted a virtual discussion about the congressional developments playing out. They pointed out that in the house-passed version of the current bill, it would reflect a $300 billion cut to the SNAP program through 2034. What they're saying The CEO of the Tarrant Area Food Bank, Julie Butner, believes the federal cuts to SNAP, if adopted, would make efforts like this farmers market and other food bank programs extremely crucial in meeting the needs of consumers and snap program recipients. "The federal reductions in SNAP benefits that have been proposed, and today are with the Senate, are quite concerning, because when these neighbors lose the SNAP benefit. If it is cut, then naturally they will be turning to the local food bank, the Tarrant Area Food Bank and our 500 partner agencies to fill the gap," said Butner. Feeding Texas is a statewide network of food banks leading a unified effort to end hunger in Texas. Feeding Texas' Vice President of Policy and Advocacy, Jami Olson, states this would be the largest cut to SNAP in history. "It represents a 30 percent cut to our nation's most important and effective anti-hunger program. If this bill is enacted it would represent the largest cut to SNAP in our nation's history," said Olson. What's next As of early June 2025, the federal cuts are still proposed cuts moving through the legislative process. The Source Information in this article was provided by the Tarrant Area Food Bank and Feeding Texas representatives.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
After multiple arrests, Iowa man sues when he's denied SNAP benefits
(Photo by) An Iowa man who says he has no stable access to food is suing the state, alleging it has unfairly denied him access to food assistance based on a criminal conviction later voided by the courts. Charles Hasselmann, 32, of Ankeny alleges that in 2023, he applied for food assistance while residing in a correctional facility as a result of a probation-revocation order that was premised on a finding of him being a habitual offender. The sentence was later vacated by a district court judge, Hasselmann claims, with the judge finding the habitual-offender enhancement to his sentence on a theft conviction lacked sufficient factual basis. Because of that finding, the court also set aside the related order that revoked his probation, Hasselmann claims. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Court records indicate the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services later disqualified Hasselmann from receiving food assistance through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, for at least 12 months. It also demanded restitution for overpayment, citing 'stolen' funds that Hasselmann says are due to others' unauthorized use of his benefits card. In his lawsuit against DHHS, Hasselmann is seeking an injunction that would award him SNAP benefits and halt any further efforts at collections for the alleged overpayments. In his petition, Hasselmann claims he was recently released from more than two years of incarceration and now has no reliable access to food or income. The public interest, he argues, strongly favors his access to 'basic nutritional support.' The state has yet to file a response to the lawsuit, but in a related court case attorneys for the state argued that while a judge did find there was insufficient factual basis to impose the habitual-offender sentence enhancement on the conviction for theft, the court did not disturb the underlying conviction for theft. The state's lawyers say that under a plea deal that was later reached, Hasselmann had agreed to a prison term of no more than five years on the theft charge. The court then set aside the earlier probation violation order, the state alleges, not because it represented 'an illegal sentence,' but because, through the subsequent plea deal, a five-year prison sentence had been agreed to and imposed. Court records indicate that since 2012, Hasselmann has been charged with numerous felony and misdemeanor offenses, resulting in seven convictions for theft, five convictions for driving while barred, five convictions for forgery, two convictions for assault and two convictions for drunken driving. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
