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U.S. SENATE MOVING FORWARD ON BUDGET CUTS AS
HOUSE DELAYS
$35 BILLION IN CUTS MAY GROW TO $50B
$10 BILLION IN MEDICAID CUTS MAY RISE
TO $12B OR MORE!
In Congress,
House leaders are delaying their budget reconciliation deadlines,
but U.S. Senate committees are still expected to vote next week on
proposals to produce almost $35 billion in spending cuts and other
savings over five years, of which up to $10 Billion was to come
from Medicaid. House GOP leaders decided to give their
authorizing committees until October 28th to meet a new target of
at least $50 billion in savings from mandatory spending on
programs ranging from Medicaid to farm subsidies. The House
Budget Committee will assemble the revised recommendations into a
single budget reconciliation bill the week of October 31st. The
Senate remains on schedule for an October 26th markup by the
Budget Committee. Bowing to grumbling from conservatives, Senate
GOP leaders have urged committees to come up with additional
spending cuts beyond those required under the congressional budget
resolution adopted in April 2005, but they have set no specific
target from each committee. In related news, Senate Finance
Committee members participated in a series of meetings this week
with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to discuss potential
cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid programs through reconciliation
legislation. It appears that Chairman Grassley presented them a
proposal to cut $12 billion from Medicaid over the next five
years, $2 billion more than is required by the fiscal year (FY)
2006 budget resolution. Meanwhile, in an additional attempt to
offset some of the hurricane relief spending, House Budget
Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-IA) is asking Congress to amend
the FY 2006 Budget Resolution approved in April with an additional
two percent cut to all discretionary programs, producing $16.8
billion in savings. However, the Congressional Leaders are not
looking at rolling back the massive tax cuts in an effort to
maintain revenue. NYSACRA will have an ACTION ALERT out early
next week and more info as it becomes available.
NEW STUDY VERIFIES HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
CRISIS FOR MILLIONS OF LOW-INCOME
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The Technical
Assistance Collaborative (TAC) has recently released its biennial
study, Priced Out in 2004, which verifies that low-income people
with disabilities are experiencing a national housing
affordability crisis. On average, people with disabilities are
paying 109 percent of their monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
income to rent a modest one-bedroom apartment and 96 percent to
rent an efficiency apartment at fair market value. The study was
published by the TAC in collaboration with the Consortium for
Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Housing Task Force, with funding
from the Melville Charitable Trust. The Priced Out in 2004 study
compares the monthly SSI income of more than 4 million Americans
with disabilities to the fair market rental rates for efficiencies
and modest one-bedroom apartments in every housing market in the
country. For example, people with disabilities in New York City
needed 166 percent of monthly SSI to cover the cost of a
one-bedroom apartment. For a .PDF version of the complete study,
or to see the percentage in your community, go to
http://www.tacinc.org/index/ and click on the Publications &
Links tab. |
