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March 14, 2025
 
News
Overview: This week, the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to fund the government, although it's not a typical CR that simply extends funding at current levels. This legislation raises defense spending by about $8 billion and lowers non-defense spending by about $13 billion, including significant cuts to programs that help keep costs down in healthcare, veteran services, seniors services, and housing. The measure would provide $7.6 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, up from $7 billion in fiscal 2024. The bill is now in the hands of the Senate.
Prospects of government shutdown: At the time of writing this newsletter, the fate of the stopgap is uncertain, although Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would vote for the measure to avoid a shutdown. Whether other Democrats will follow Schumer's lead remains to be seen; some have pushed back on his comments. If an agreement cannot be reached, the government will shut down at midnightFriday.
Economy: In the week ending March 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims ([link removed]) was 220,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 221,000 to 222,000. The 4-week moving average was 226,000, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 224,250 to 224,500.
Call to action: We have attached to this message a list of upcoming town hall meetings hosted by members of Congress. This is a great way to have your voice heard. Please reach out to your member for more details. You can use CCUSA's "Find Your Elected Officials ([link removed])" tool.
Data tool: Urban Institute created a first-of-its-kind data tool ([link removed]) to demonstrate how a potential loss of government grants would affect the financial sustainability of nonprofits. Users can search by state, county, and congressional district to determine the share of nonprofits in their community at risk of being unable to cover their expenses without government grants.
Choice in Affordable Housing Act: Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO-05) and Mike Lawler (R-NY-17) reintroduced ([link removed]) the Choice in Affordable Housing Act, which would make the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program more accessible for prospective voucher recipients, as well as more attractive and easier to participate in for landlords. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced a companion bill in the Senate (S.890 ([link removed])). If passed, the bill would allocate $500 million for additional funding for public housing authorities (PHAs) to support voucher holders and landlords, expand the use of Small Area Fair Market Rents to calculate HCV rents at the neighborhood level, streamline the unit inspection process, and reform HUD's annual PHA evaluation procedures.
 
Living Faith
Who has blessed you with rain, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses, with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship and the easy familiarity of kinship? Who has made you lord and master of everything on earth? Who has endowed you with all that makes [human beings] superior to all other living creatures? Is it not God who asks you now to show yourself generous above all other creatures and for the sake of all other creatures? Because we have received from him so many wonderful gifts, will we not be ashamed to refuse him this one thing only, our generosity? Though he is God and Lord he is not afraid to be known as our Father. Shall we for our part repudiate those who are our kith and kin? Resolve to imitate God's justice, and no one will be poor. From a sermon by St. Gregory of Nazianzen
 
Trivia
Q. Why do we say 40 days of Lent when the calendar shows more days between Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday?
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