NEWSROOM

On July 31, 2009, Stacy Howard and Linda Thornberg on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated filed a class action in federal district court against the Executive Commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission for failure to comply with federal timeliness standards in processing applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called Food Stamps.

Congress is finally on the verge of extending the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s extra weeks of jobless insurance benefits. Doing so is critical to helping hardworking Texans who cannot find jobs and to sustaining our economic recovery.

Congress should now take a second important step and extend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s help to states to balance their budgets. Texas balanced its present budget with federal help that largely runs out by December 31. By providing additional help, Congress can help Texas prevent job-killing state spending cuts.

We urge Senator Hutchison and Senator Cornyn to act quickly to help Texas.

An important reform of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act launched July 1 when Texans who have been without health coverage for at least six months and who have been denied coverage because of pre-existing health gained access to more affordable, quality coverage. They will receive it through a new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Yesterday the Governor and the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) began the budget-writing process for 2012-13 by instructing state agencies, courts, institutions of higher education, and health-related institutions to submit proposals that include more deep cuts.

CPPP urges that the state leadership instead take a balanced approach to balancing the state budget by spending all the state’s Rainy Day Fund and raising new revenue, rather than relying solely on reducing services to make ends meet.

Much of the health care reform reporting these past few weeks has focused on political winners and losers. But parents are more concerned with their own families than with political score-keeping. And let's be clear: The reform plan passed by Congress is a major victory for Texas’ children and families.

The State Auditor’s office released a report today on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). The report provides a blueprint for restoring access to SNAP (formerly called Food Stamps) and fixing the state’s eligibility and enrollment system for SNAP, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance. HHSC’s Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs requested the audit to inform his efforts to end severe delays in SNAP application processing. The delays cause food hardship to tens of thousands of needy Texans struggling to feed their families in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

With more than one in four Texans currently lacking health care insurance and runaway premiums adding daily to that 6.1 million count, relief cannot not come too soon for our overburdened health care system. In addition to providing new economic security to millions of Texas families, the national health reform bill will also bring billions of dollars back to Texas each year through health insurance tax credits for middle class and low-income Texans, and Medicaid coverage for our poorest citizens.

Our state leadership should move promptly and in good faith to facilitate the implementation of health insurance reforms. Texans can look to the establishment of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and our response to Hurricane Ike as recent examples of the excellent performance of which our state government is capable when it has the backing of leadership.

On February 12, the Center for Public Policy Priorities released The State of Texas Children: Texas KIDS COUNT Annual Data Book 2009-2010, a resource that offers an updated look at the well-being of children in Texas, as well as complete online data snapshots for every county in Texas. This year’s data book chronicles how decades of state fiscal belt-tightening have squeezed off investment in child well-being in Texas, noting that even though federal stimulus dollars filled the gaps in the 2010-2011 state budget, resulting in a slight increase in state spending on services to children, Texas still ranks among the 10 states with the highest rate of child poverty in the nation, as it has for every year since 2000. Furthermore, the most current data available does not yet reflect the effects of the economic recession which hit Texas children and families much later than the rest of the country.

Nearly one in five Texans struggle to afford food, according to a report released last week by the Food Research and Action Center. The Lone Star State is among 20 states with food hardship rates of 20 percent or higher in 2008-2009. Food hardship among families with children was even more pronounced, with 27.2 percent of Texas families reporting difficulty affording food. The study calls for job creation measures and increased investment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps) and other federal nutrition programs that help families afford food during tough economic times. To rise to this challenge, Texas needs to fix the problems in its SNAP eligibility system, where staffing shortages are preventing hundreds of thousands of needy Texans from accessing food assistance. Congress can help America’s struggling families by extending the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (ARRA) additional unemployment benefits.

CPPP today issued a statement on national health care reform, urging Congress and the Administration to move forward with the reform effort.

More than one of every five Texas children, or nearly 1.5 million kids, lived in poverty during 2008—and when data from 2009 are compiled, that number is likely to increase to one of every four kids, according to a new analysis released Wednesday by First Focus and Brookings researcher Julia Isaacs. The increase in poor children is placing an even heavier burden on an already strained network of private charities and state agencies already reeling from the triple punch of inadequate funding, staffing shortages, and a broken eligibility system that withholds critical assistance to needy families.