Last year’s recovery act included pivotal steps to enhance and transform the lives of Americans living in poverty. One such step was the creation of the TANF Emergency Fund, a $5 billion fund designed to help states meet the growing need for assistance and increase employment opportunities available to low-income families. Since its establishment, at least 35 states and the District of Columbia have used the fund to create 240,000 subsidized jobs for low-income and long-term unemployed workers.

These jobs have played a critical role in providing employment opportunities and helping states to meet the rising need for services resulting from the Great Recession. Yet if Congress does not extend the TANF Emergency Fund beyond its expiration date of September 30, 2010, states will be forced to halt their successful subsidized jobs programs and will no longer be able to offer the assistance to help families weather the economic storm.

Write your senators and representative and urge them to extend the TANF Emergency Fund today!

The first thought that comes to many peoples’ minds when they think of Colorado is the Rocky Mountains and ski resorts. It may be surprising to hear that in the same state where many escape for vacation, the child poverty rate is growing faster than anywhere else in the US.  The disadvantages which these children face make them more likely to perform poorly in school, have inadequate health, and struggle as adults.

Luckily, it does not have to be this way and there are people committed to the idea that no Coloradan should live in poverty. The Half in Ten Colorado coalition brings together people from a wide variety of backgrounds, from policymakers to faith leaders, to work towards the goal of cutting poverty in half by 2020.

Click here to read commentary on the Colorado Half in Ten Coalition by the Boulder Daily Camera.

The Half in Ten campaign joined 127 other national organizations last week to urge Congress to pass legislation that is critical to the well-being of our nation’s children. Nearly 1 in 4 children lived in a household struggling with hunger in 2008, and research shows that 1 in 3 are either obese or overweight. That makes it a critical national priority for Congress to reauthorize the nation’s two cornerstone child nutrition laws—the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act—collectively known as Child Nutrition Reauthorization

Contact Congress NOW!

Child nutrition programs such as school meals; the WIC nutrition program for women, infants, and children; and summer and afterschool feeding programs help protect our most vulnerable children from hunger. These programs provide many low-income children with their only fully balanced meal—or sometimes only meal—on any given day.

Write your Senators and Representative!

Congress is running out of legislative calendar days to complete the reauthorization before the bills expire on September 30. If it does not reauthorize the child nutrition laws this summer, millions of children could miss out on improved access to the food they need. Write your members of Congress and tell them that the health of our nation’s children depends on Child Nutrition Reauthorization.

That is why you need to contact Congress TODAY!

Today marks the 48th day that millions of unemployed workers have been left without jobless benefits since Congress allowed them to lapse back in May. 

Write your senator TODAY!

The Senate has scheduled a vote for tomorrow on extending unemployment benefits through November 30, 2010 as a stand-alone bill. Inaction means that 3.2 million unemployed workers will lose access to jobless benefits by the end of the month. Cutting off unemployment insurance can have dire effects on families, as these personal stories show.

Inaction also undermines a nascent economic recovery. In fact, according to the Economic Policy Institute, unemployment insurance has saved 1.1 million jobs since the recession started, increased the number of hours worked by those who already have jobs, and added 1.7 percent to the gross domestic product.

That is why we need you to ACT NOW!

Unemployment across the country is hovering around 10 percent, with low-income communities, youth, single mother households, and communities of color facing disproportionate rates of joblessness.

Senators need to hear from Half in Ten activists that we want them to extend benefits for the unemployed and invest in job creation. We need your help to get the 60 votes to move this bill forward.

Take Action Now. Write your Senator before the vote.

Click here to read the personal story of Terry Hokenson, whose unemployment benefits were cut off.

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Today marks the 29th day that millions of unemployed workers have been left without jobless benefits as Congress continues to stall on passage of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (HR4213). The bill failed a third time just last week, unable to get the 60 votes necessary to get through the Senate.

Write your senators today and urge them to act swiftly to extend unemployment insurance and other job-creation measures such as:

• Providing State Fiscal Relief in the form of Medicaid, known as FMAP, for another six months
• Extending the TANF Emergency Fund through FY 2011 to save 205,000 jobs
• Providing funding for summer jobs for youth

Write your Senator Now! 

The House and Senate are discussing the possibility of extending unemployment benefits through November 30, 2010 as a stand-alone bill. Inaction means that 1.2 million unemployed workers will have lost access to jobless benefits by the time July 4 rolls around and a total of 2 million workers will lose their benefits by the end of July. Cutting off unemployment insurance undermines a nascent economic recovery and can have dire effects on families, as these personal stories show.

And without congressional action to provide fiscal relief to states and extend the TANF Emergency Fund, states will lose $16 billion in Medicaid aid. This means that as states start their fiscal years on July 1, hundreds of thousands of jobs and needed services could be cut, both of which undermine the economic recovery. And if Congress does not act soon, business that have partnered with state governments to create 205,000 private-sector jobs will begin shutting down these opportunities for vulnerable workers.

That is why we need you to ACT NOW!

Unemployment across the country is hovering around 10 percent, with low-income communities, youth, single mother households, and communities of color facing disproportionate rates of joblessness. Congress has already, in the name of deficit-reduction, significantly scaled back the help for the jobless and FMAP assistance, cutting unemployment benefits by $25 a week and removing COBRA health benefits from the bill.

Write your senators and tell them to support an extension of unemployment insurance, Medicaid assistance and TANF Emergency fund. These measures will increase the short-term deficit by less than 1 percent and actually put us on stronger economic footing in the long term by contributing to economic recovery and creating jobs.

They need to hear from Half in Ten activists that we want them to invest in job creation. Tell them to finish the job on the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes bill and to vote for an extension of unemployment insurance. We need your help to get the 60 votes to move this bill forward.

Take Action Now. Write your Senator before the vote.

Congress voted last year to help hardworking Americans make ends meet by expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. But the expansions to these critical tax credits will disappear if Congress does not act soon.

Contact your representative today to demand that they don’t let improvements to these credits expire.

Refundable tax credits like the EITC and CTC help ensure that work pays more than welfare, but they are at risk of losing much of their effectiveness. If Congress does not extend the improvements to the programs, a parent who works full time in a minimum wage position will have his or her annual credit reduced from $1,800 to $320 at the end of 2010. This would have a devastating effect on children in low-income families.

Research conducted by the Tax Policy Center reveals that 8 million children would lose the tax credit entirely if Congress allows the current Child Tax Credit improvements to expire, and an additional 10 million children would lose some of the credit. This change would lead as many as 600,000 more children to become poor and 4 million already poor children to fall deeper into poverty, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

We must stand up to preserve the 2009 reforms to the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. But there is room for additional federal leadership, as well. If the current improvement expires, a family’s first $13,000 in wages will not count toward calculating the Child Tax Credit. Congress should change the law so that all earnings count in calculating the credit. A family with two children will receive $2,000 if full-time, year-round minimum wage earnings are all counted; but the same family will receive only $312 if the improvements expire.

Contact your representative today to preserve and improve these essential programs.

Call your representative TODAY:  1-877-442-6801, toll-free. Ask them to support a final jobs bill that:

• Extends unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefits
• Provides relief to states in the form of Medicaid funding
• Extends the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund, which is slated to expire on September 30
• Includes funding for youth summer jobs

You can read a quick explanation of what’s in the bill and why each piece is important or listen to a podcast with more information.

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Every year, we look to Congress to pass a budget resolution. The resolution defines our country’s fiscal priorities for the year and sets the framework for the federal government’s spending decisions. This framework is essential for laying the groundwork to pursue key antipoverty policies such as job creation, the earned income tax credit, and child care.

President Barack Obama’s budget request for fiscal year 2011 offered a good model, with investments in child care and expanded tax credits for low-income families. But we are hearing murmurs around Washington, D.C. that Congress may not even pass a budget resolution this year. And if they do, deficit peacocks may make a show of fiscal responsibility—without making much of a dent on deficits—by tightening the president’s already strict limit on non-defense discretionary spending, which funds critical antipoverty initiatives.

Tell your members of Congress to pass a budget that reflects the principles of shared economic recovery! Read more »

On March 26, 2010, 9:30am – 11:00am please join the Center for American Progress’s Doing What Works project and the Half in Ten campaign (a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Coalition on Human Needs) for a panel discussion on how innovative policymakers are already reshaping the antipoverty safety net, and what additional steps government must take to reform antipoverty programs.

Click here to learn more, RSVP or watch the live webcast the day of the event.
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The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it will be developing an alternative way to measure poverty. This new method will better reflect the realities facing struggling families and ways in which current government programs can help them to get back on their feet. Unlike the traditional poverty measure, which is based in a 1960s reality, this supplemental measure will provide a more accurate accounting of household budgets and better determination of whether a family has enough resources to meet its most basic needs.