From DC is Justice in Getting older’s weekly roundup of nationwide information and assets about points impacting older adults. To obtain From DC in your inbox as quickly as its revealed, join our mailing record.
Right here’s what we’re watching in Washington:
Urge Congress to Defend Truthful Housing Funding
The Trump Administration is searching for to remove funding for the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD)’s honest housing grants for nonprofits preventing housing discrimination. According to the Administration’s funds requests, the Home of Representatives’ HUD funds proposal for Fiscal 12 months 2026 zeroes out funding for HUD’s Truthful Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP).
HUD’s FHIP program funds nonprofits to research housing discrimination, educate communities about honest housing rights, and supply assist with or authorized illustration in honest housing instances. Earlier this 12 months, the Administration additionally cancelled grants for practically 70 FHIP businesses, resulting in ongoing litigation.
FHIP businesses play a serious function within the nation’s honest housing enforcement system, and greater than 75% of honest housing complaints are dealt with by FHIP organizations. Annually, the vast majority of honest housing complaints contain incapacity discrimination, which is a matter typically confronted by older adults.
Learn extra about honest housing points affecting older adults and other people with disabilities, and signal on to the Nationwide Truthful Housing Alliance’s letter urging Congress to guard honest housing funding. Organizations are inspired to signal on by this Monday, July 21. People can even signal and flow into this petition calling on Congress to totally fund honest housing applications.
Medicaid Enrollees’ Private Information to be Shared with ICE
In response to an Related Press report, the non-public information of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees will likely be shared with federal immigration officers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Extremely private data equivalent to names, addresses, Social Safety numbers, and race and ethnicity will likely be shared with ICE and can reportedly be used to establish and find immigrants for deportation.
The weaponizing of Medicaid and the non-public data of its enrollees is deeply stunning and violates longstanding protections towards the sharing of private information. This disclosure impacts the privateness of all folks enrolled in Medicaid, no matter their immigration standing, together with U.S. residents, authorized everlasting residents, and all different immigrants.
This motion comes one month after earlier information experiences that the knowledge of Medicaid enrollees in seven states was shared with the Division of Homeland Safety. For extra data, see our earlier assertion condemning the sharing of Medicaid enrollees’ information with immigration officers and our record of assets.Justice in Getting older is monitoring these developments and can preserve our community knowledgeable as we study extra.
New HHS Discover Re-Deciphering PRWORA and Definition of “Federal Public Profit”
Final week, the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) revealed a discover altering its longstanding interpretation of the time period “federal public profit” underneath the 1996 welfare regulation (often known as the Private Duty and Work Alternative Reconciliation Act of 1996, or PRWORA). The discover, which went into impact instantly, restricts eligibility for “federal public profit” applications to sure “certified immigrants,” excluding many lawfully residing immigrants.
HHS now considers a further 13 applications as federal public advantages, together with Well being Middle Packages, the Neighborhood Block Companies Nice, the Neighborhood Psychological Well being Companies Block Grant, the Kinship Guardianship Help Program, Head Begin, and extra. HHS notes that any program not enumerated within the discover may nonetheless be decided a federal public profit in subsequent program-specific steering.
The discover is open for a 30-day remark interval ending on August 13 and is much like notices issued by the U.S. Division of Agriculture, Division of Labor, and Division of Justice re-interpreting PRWORA. These notices upend a long time of federal interpretation of public advantages regulation and should hurt older immigrants and organizations serving them.
Though the discover doesn’t affect eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, these notices, mixed with the brand new restrictions in H.R. 1 and different anti-immigrant insurance policies, characterize an assault on immigrant communities throughout the nation.
Justice in Getting older is analyzing the notices and dealing with companions to make sure that older immigrants usually are not harmed by these adjustments. For an evaluation of the HHS discover, see this useful resource from the Nationwide Immigration Regulation Middle.
DOJ Points Memo Undermining Language Entry
This week, the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo to all federal businesses on implementation of Government Order (EO) 14224, which designated English because the official language of the USA. The brand new DOJ memo operationalizes the EO by rescinding prior LEP steering for recipients of federal funding and briefly suspending present assets like LEP.gov.
As well as, the memo encourages different federal businesses to evaluate their very own LEP steering to make sure compliance with EO 14224, think about English-only providers, use expertise and AI to scale back translation prices, embody a disclaimer that English is the official language when offering multilingual providers, and redirect funds to English language training. DOJ plans to conduct a evaluate of its non-English providers and subject new steering for federal businesses on prioritizing English throughout the subsequent 180 days.
Justice in Getting older will proceed to watch the Trump Administration’s implementation of EO 14224 to make sure that older adults with LEP usually are not discriminated towards in accessing providers. Learn our full assertion about EO 14224.
New Justice in Getting older Sources
Justice in Getting older Webinars
Justice in Getting older Webinar Recordings
