S.F. RESULTS

Bay Area RESULTS News — March 2004

Workday   Local Legislative Success   Global Legislative Update   Domestic Legislative Update   Calendar

Workday — Saturday, March 13

On Saturday March 13, RESULTS partners will gather in simultaneous regional gatherings across the country. Our Northern California workday will be at the home of Bill and Tari Nicholson in Martinez.

Local Legislative Success

H.R.3818, the Microenterprise Results and Accountability Act of 2004, has 48 sponsors and cosponsors, including four Bay Area representatives: Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), George Miller (D-Pleasant Hill), and Ellen Tauscher (D-Walnut Creek). Kudos to these legislators for their leadership, especially to Tom Lantos for his support in crafting the bill. And thanks to the volunteers who helped get their cosponsorships!

Global Legislative Update

H.R.3818, the Microenterprise Results and Accountability Act of 2004, was introduced by Reps. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Henry Hyde (R-IL), Tom Lantos (D-CA), and others. This bill provides landmark reforms of USAID's microenterprise efforts to ensure that more money actually reaches programs in the field serving large numbers of very poor clients. It also reinforces the development of poverty measurement tools, to measure and assure compliance. The bill has 48 sponsors and cosponsors so far.

Please see January 2004 Bay Area RESULTS News for a report on RESULTS' Global Campaign for 2004.

Domestic Legislative Update

On Friday, March 5, the Senate Budget Committee approved a budget resolution that, if enacted, likely will result in significant cuts to key domestic programs, increased taxes on low-income working families and extend tax breaks to wealthy people. The Senate budget resolution requires the Senate Finance Committee to cut entitlements and targets Medicaid ($11 billion over five years) and the Earned Income Tax Credit ($3 billion in cuts). According to Families USA, over 1.2 million children, seniors and people with disabilities may lose access to health care coverage and services under the Senate budget resolution's Medicaid cuts. Families USA's analysis specifically shows that more than 850,000 children, 31,000 seniors, 19,000 people with disabilities, and 320,000 working parents would lose access to health care coverage.

While cutting key domestic programs, the Senate budget resolution includes the following tax provisions targeted at wealthy individuals (courtesy of the Coalition on Human Needs,

The House budget resolution may include even deeper cuts! For background on the president's budget proposal for 2005 and beyond, see the RESULTS alert.

Please see January 2004 Bay Area RESULTS News for a general report on RESULTS' Domestic Campaign for 2004.


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