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ACTION
NEEDED: Letters to House needed *9/21-9/22* to
oppose bill to cut SSI
The
House Rules Committee has set
a vote on H.R. 2792, to cut SSI for certain
beneficiaries, for next Monday, September 25 at
5:00 PM. House floor consideration of the bill
is expected on Tuesday, September 26 or
Wednesday, September 27.
Send
a brief email to your
Representative now urging them to
OPPOSE H.R. 2792.
It
is vital to our nation’s well-being and success
that we fund programs that provide critical
resources and support to low-income and at-risk
populations. Unfortunately, last week the
House Ways and Means Committee
approved two bills that would
reauthorize one important program—the Maternal,
Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting
Program (MIECHV)—by cutting
funding to another—Supplemental
Security Income (SSI). Next these bills
will move to the House Rules Committee and then
the full House for a vote.
The
bill targeting SSI, H.R. 2792, suspends SSI
payments for people with any outstanding arrest
warrant for an alleged felony or an alleged
probation or parole violation. As we have discussed
previously, these warrants are often old,
involve minor infractions, or are part of
inactive cases that law enforcement does not
want to pursue. They also disproportionately
affect African Americans, Native Americans, and
other people of color.
Resolving
these warrants would be particularly difficult
for many of those affected, a significant
percentage of whom have a mental illness or
intellectual disability. This proposal would
also not help law enforcement secure additional
arrests. Because the Social Security
Administration already has a reporting system in
place to alert the authorities about individuals
with arrest warrants in the Social Security
database, the primary effect of this
bill would be to deprive thousands of people of
benefits they depend on to meet
their basic needs.
Congress
should reauthorize the MIECHV program, which
provides intensive home visiting services by
trained professionals (such as nurses, social
workers, and parent educators) to help parents
gain the skills they need to improve their
children’s development. However, this
program should not be funded by cutting benefits
to poor seniors and people with
disabilities. House Democrats, for
example, suggested revenue sources for the
MIECHV program that did not include cuts to SSI.
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