Washington, DC – House Republican leadership over the weekend released their continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of the year. The stopgap measure is expected to be voted on as early as tomorrow, March 11.
Maribel Ramos, director of government relations at the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, released the following statement in response:
“House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans have unified control of our government. They have a responsibility to put a bill on the floor that can pass both chambers—any shutdown will be of their own doing. Instead of working with Democrats to fund our government, they’ve put forward a bill that risks evictions for tens of thousands of people, strips struggling families of food assistance, and drives more women and children into poverty.
“This is a bad faith proposal that will lead us to a government shutdown. Congressional Democrats should reject this version, and instead, return to the negotiating table with Republicans to quickly reach a bipartisan agreement on a budget that will not harm women and families.”
The House Republicans’ continuing resolution includes severe cuts that would:
- Increase housing insecurity and homelessness by slashing rental assistance, putting more than 32,000 households at risk of eviction, and shortchanging homelessness programs by $168 million.
- Jeopardize Social Security benefits by allowing thousands of employees at the Social Security Administration to be fired, forcing office closures, and resulting in longer wait times for beneficiaries.
- Reduce access to food assistance by cutting funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program as the cost of groceries continues to rise.
- Provides Trump and Musk more freedom to steal congressionally appropriated money for their extreme agenda.
These cuts would disproportionately harm women and children:
- Rental Assistance: Women head 74% of households served by federal rental assistance programs, and single women and children make up nearly 45% of extremely low-income renters, almost double the rate of men in similar circumstances.
- Social Security: Women make up 55% of Social Security beneficiaries aged 62 and older and 63% of beneficiaries aged 85 and older.
- Nutrition Assistance: The Emergency Food Assistance Program provides essential food aid to low-income individuals. Women, who are already more likely than men to live in poverty, will bear the brunt of these cuts—especially single mothers, whose poverty rate surged from 11.9% in 2021 to 28.5% in 2023. Funding cuts to this program would also impact older Americans.
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