Sequester At A Glance: The Impact on Vulnerable Communities in Maryland and Across the Country

The reckless, across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester could have a disproportionate impact on critical programs that serve our most vulnerable communities in Maryland and across the country. Unfortunately, the House has not considered any legislation to stop the sequester, threatening many programs that seniors, working mothers, veterans, and others in Maryland and around the country rely on.

Here’s a closer look at how the sequester could impact those in our most vulnerable communities over the coming weeks and months:

JOBS AND THE UNEMPLOYED

• Maryland could lose $66,000 in funding for job search assistance, referral, and placement services, meaning around 9,270 fewer people will get the help and skills they need to find employment.
• People receiving Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits could see their benefits cut by nearly 11 percent. Long-term unemployed individuals could lose an average of more than $450 in benefits.
  • Deep cuts to long-term unemployment benefits could disproportionately affect people of color. 10.5 percent of Latinos and 13.8 percent of blacks are unemployed.

• Workforce development programs like YouthBuild and Job Corps could face significant cuts by about 8 percent under sequestration.
  • In 2010, 54 percent of YouthBuild participants were African American and 20 percent were Latino.
  • Job Corps faces about $83 million in cuts in FY 2013 under sequestration; about 72 percent of Job Corps participants were people of color.

• Critical job-creating programs such as the Build America Bonds program are facing a 7.6 percent cut.
  • Infrastructure investments stimulate employment in sectors that employ a disproportionately high rate of workers of color, such as construction and public transit.

WOMEN AND FAMILIES

• Nutrition Assistance: Approximately 600,000 women and children, including approximately 8,600 in Maryland, could be droppedfrom the Department of Agriculture’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) from March through September, and at least 1,600 state and local jobs across the country could be lost as a result.
  • This program provides nutritious food subsidies to poor pregnant women, as well as poor women with infants and children under the age of 5. It could be cut by $543 million; more than 450,000 people of color throughout the country benefit from its service.

• Housing: The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher program, which provides rental assistance to very low-income families, could see a reduction in funding, placing about 125,000 families in the U.S. at immediate risk of losing housing.
  • In 2011, Section 8 aided more than 2 million low-income families across the country. 44 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of public housing recipients are African American and Latino.

• Domestic Violence Victims: Maryland could lose up to $124,000 in funds that provide services to victims of domestic violence, resulting in up to 500 fewer victims being served in our state.

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

• Early child care funding could be cut by more than $900 million, impacting the thousands of children of color who benefit from these programs. 70,000 children could be kicked out of Head Start, including 800 children in Maryland, and sixty percent of program participants are children of color.
• Cuts could also affect the Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Care Development Fund, potentially ending child care subsidies for 30,000 children in the U.S. Up to 400 disadvantaged and vulnerable children in Maryland could lose access to child care.
• Federal education funding cuts could disproportionately hurt students of color. Nationwide, $3 billion could be cut in education alone which could impact 9.3 million studentsin the following programs:
  • Financial aid and work study programs for college students: 81 percent of African Americans and 67 percent of Latinos with a bachelor’s degree graduated with student debt, compared to 64 percent of their white peers. In Maryland alone, around 770 fewer low income students could receive financial aid and around 440 fewer students will get work-study jobs that help them pay for college.
  • Programs for our most vulnerable youth: English-language learners, those attending high-poverty, struggling schools, and homeless children.

• Programs that serve Maryland youth face severe cuts, such as The Latin American Youth Center, which houses homeless teens, offers domestic violence counseling, job training.
  • Education for children with disabilities: Maryland alone could lose approximately $9.7 million in funds for about 120 teachers, aides, and staff who help children with disabilities.

HEALTH CARE

• The National Institutes of Health, which has a headquarters in Maryland, could lose $1.5 billion in medical research funding. There could be fewer research projects aimed at finding treatments and cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetes--both of which are among the leading causes of death for African Americans.
• In Maryland around 2,050 fewer children could receive vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, and the flu.
• About $1.6 million in grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse in Maryland could be cut, resulting in around 2,500 fewer admissions to substance abuse programs.
• Maryland health departments could lose about $595,000 resulting in around 14,900 fewer HIV tests.

SENIORS

• Federally-assisted programs like Meals on Wheels could serve 4 million fewer meals to seniors. Maryland could lose approximately $877,000 in funds for these programs. These meals are especially important to seniors with chronic illnesses that are affected by diet, such as diabetes and heart disease, and frail seniors who are homebound, and can account for 50 percent or more of daily food for the majority of home delivered participants.

OTHER

• Native American tribes could lose almost $130 million in funding from the Department of the Interior, causing reductions across human services, law enforcement, schools, economic development and natural resources.

What the Experts Say:

• New York Times Editorial: “But some Americans will be hurt more than others, and the people who will be hurt the most are those who are already struggling. In the months ahead, an estimated 3.8 million Americans who have been unemployed for more than six months face a cut in federal jobless benefits of nearly 11 percent — or about $32 a week — all from the recent average weekly benefit of $292. And an estimated 600,000 low-income women and toddlers will be turned away from the federal nutrition program for women, infants and children, known as WIC.”

“The federal government has yet to issue specific guidance on how states should handle an estimated cut to the WIC program of $340 million this fiscal year. Little will happen until April, but, after that, priority is likely to be given increasingly to pregnant and breast-feeding women and to infants, while women not breast-feeding are put on an indefinite wait list, along with many children over 1 year old. The cutbacks to mothers would affect African-Americans disproportionately, because their breast-feeding rates are lower than other groups’. The cuts in aid to children will fall disproportionately on Hispanic families, who tend to have more children.” [New York Times, 3/2]

• Lori Kaplan, the president and chief executive of the Latin American Youth Center, which serves 4,400 youth in the District and Maryland: “The insecurity of that — when you’re dealing with human service needs in neighborhood settings — is just crazy…No business can run like this… There’ s no question we will be hit…It’s just a question of when, and by how much.” [Washington Post, 3/5]

• National Education Association (NEA) Vice President Lily Eskelsen: “Very serious consequences are going to happen, and it’s going to hit our most vulnerable populations.” [VOXXI, 3/5]

• League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Director of Education Policy Luis Torres: “We argue that it’s a disproportionate effect on the Latino community because we have both kids who are benefiting from these programs and likely the first targets of the sequestration process.” [VOXXI, 3/5]

• Sharon Parrott, vice president for budget policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “But low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities will face “very real impacts,” said Sharon Parrott, vice president for budget policy at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...”[Washington Post, 3/3]

• Sen. Tom Harkin, Chairman, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies: “[The sequester] would also have destructive impacts on the whole array of Federal activities that promote and protect the middle class in this country – everything from education to job training, medical research, child care, worker safety, food safety, national parks, border security and safe air travel. These essential government services directly touch every family in America, and they will be subject to deep, arbitrary cuts under sequestration.” [Senate Appropriations Committee, 7/25]