Oct. 8, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - For the second time this year, Congress’ inability to reach consensus on essential fiscal legislation has devolved into largely partisan bickering and literal, last-minute temporary financial band-aids. On September 30, the last day of the 2022-2023 federal fiscal year, a continuing resolution (CR) provided a 45-day reprieve, just in time to meet a midnight deadline that would have resulted in a federal government shutdown.  

In signing the stop-gap appropriations measure, President Joe Biden acknowledged its benefit and also reminded the nation of how unnecessary it really was.  

“This bill ensures that active-duty troops will continue to get paid, travelers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more,” said President Biden. “But I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place. Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis.”  

Readers may recall that in late spring and facing a first-ever national debt default, another piece of compromise legislation led to the Fiscal Accountability Act.  

That eleventh hour maneuver provided a two-year window for the Treasury Department to borrow – as needed – funds to pay the nation’s more than $31 trillion of debt.  In return, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), cutbacks on discretionary spending would result in a drop in projected budget deficits of about $4.8 trillion over the next decade, and a savings of $0.5 trillion in interest. But this fiscal compromise requires Congress to return to that deferred problem in January 2025.  

Neither of these developments have been well-received by the public. Only days before the September 30 fiscal rescue, a consumer poll taken September 19-24 by Monmouth University echoed President Biden’s concerns:  

• 74 percent of respondents disapproved of the job Congress is doing; 
• 68 percent believed the government is on the wrong track; and  
• 64 percent supported compromise to enact a new budget.  

“The vast majority of Americans want to avoid a shutdown. The faction who does not want any compromise may represent a small proportion of the public, but they hold outsized influence in the U.S. Capitol,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. 

By mid-November, the nation will again face a shutdown at a time when families typically and excitedly finalize preparations for annual Thanksgiving gatherings. If a full federal spending plan for the new 2023-2024 fiscal year that began October 1 is not approved, many will also await learning whether the federal government will be able to function during a season dedicated to blessings.  

As with most budget cut decisions, potentially-affected personnel are understandably anxious. Currently, there are 4.5 million people who are either military or civilian federal employees, according to the CBO. 

Similarly, agencies that administer programs that respond to vital needs are in a similar dilemma. 

For example, the stark rise in requests for disaster relief from flooding, hurricanes, and wildfires caused theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to recently appeal to Congress for an additional $16 billion to serve communities in distress. On September 19, Deanne Criswell, FEMA Administrator testified before a House subcommittee, alerted lawmakers to the agency’s shrinking ability to keep pace with surging requests. 

“On average, we are seeing a disaster declaration every three days,” testified Criswell. “We strive to be vigilant stewards of taxpayer dollars, and we are careful in our projections of how much funding will be required for the Disaster Relief Fund. However, there are times when the number and intensity of disasters outpaces appropriated funds, and we find ourselves in such a moment today.”  

Funding for these and other needs now have been added to the traditional conservative calls to cut entitlement programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) more commonly known as food stamps. As of this spring, 41.9 million people who comprise 22.2 million households were enrolled in SNAP, according to Pew Research.   

According to the Department of Education, an estimated 26 million students would be affected by a proposed $4 billion cut in funding schools serving low-income children. In higher education, Pell Grants that provide a critical source of financial aid for low-to-moderate income college students would be cut by 22 percent, and the maximum award would be lowered to $1,000 – at a time when the cost to attend college continues to soar. 

Time will tell whether this Congress will face and respond to America’s real needs. But tens of millions of Americans potentially could be impacted by a federal government closure while the nation is on a ticking fiscal time clock.  

Charlene Crowell is a senior policy fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.   

Istock Photo

Sept. 26, 2023

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - If you glance at a map of the District of Columbia from an environmental justice perspective, the gulf between class and race is illustrated by geography and zip code. The wards where Washington, DC’s poor, underserved and marginalized residents live are dotted with highways, landfills, hazardous waste, more concrete and fewer trees than the wealthier and more well-off wards uptown.

Kelly Crawford, a senior advisor for Energy and Environmental Justice at the US Department of Energy (DOE) illustrated this using a detailed slide presentation during a panel discussion at the CBC’s Annual Legislative Weekend showing the significant differences in air and water quality, dangerously high carbon levels, transportation inequities and related issues between communities.

“There are alarming differences between wards,” she said. “Ward 7 exceeded national air safety numbers next to I-295. We found transportation inequity and lack of access to healthcare.”

Crawford said Washington, DC’s extra air pollution burden is caused by racial segregation patterns. A study of asthma and race in Washington, DC also shows that Wards 5, 7 and 8 has the most emergency room visits.

There is 25 times the average of pediatric visits to the emergency room, Crawford said.

“There are deep disparities between children in DC,” she added. “These areas have the highest rates of every disease…Residents living in these wards have higher mortality, stroke, COPD and lung cancer ... Redlining is most evident in DC.”

Maryland State Representative Deni Tavares substantiated Crawford’s findings.

“I am a chemist. I worked at the EPA in enforcement of Super Fund sites. I saw the discrepancies. Prince George’s County has the worst air quality in the state. A landfill sits in Prince George’s County. All landfills sit in communities of color and there is a high degree of dumping in our community.”

Tavares, who represents District 2 in Maryland, said she is or has used legislation to target anti-fracking, eliminating Styrofoam and plastic straws. She said she is working resolutely to bring about transit equity and said environmental justice translates to preserve, protect and empower communities.

Antoine Thompson, executive director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition (GWRCC), a leading public-private entity that focuses on clean energy, transportation and environmental justice and equity, moderated the panel discussion. He told a Trice Edney News Wire reporter that environmental justice is definitely a human rights issue.

“The fact that we have so much data out there shows that based on zip codes and life expectancy, Black and brown people live shorter lives based on where water and transportation is,” he said. “It depends on the streetscape, the amount of cars and crime versus exercising … this is not by accident. Yes, it’s significant.”

The forum was sponsored by the GWRCC and Clean Fuels Alliance America as the launch of an Environmental Justice Community Forum Series, “a collaboration aimed at raising awareness and fostering dialogue on environmental justice (EJ) and the vital role of biodiesel in underserved or disadvantaged communities,” a statement described.

Thompson said asthma is not hereditary although that’s usually taught in many African-American households. “It’s fixable problem. Transportation is a big part of it. In DC, transportation is a significant driver … (and) zip codes matter …”

Thompson said having these conversations is critical.

“These conversations need to happen and are not,” he said. “There should be conversations about pollution from transportation, energy and the environment … 10,000 people are here (at the CBC Annual Legislative Weekend), there are 100 forums and just two are on environmental justice.”  

Dennis Chestnut, executive director of Groundwork Anacostia River DC, agreed that environmental rights has become human rights. One task facing activists and others is bringing together or at least being aware of all the disparate pieces of the environmental justice ecosystem.

“We have a handle on segments of the problem. It’s kinda like puzzles – one thing connecting to another, opening things up and moving us along,” Chestnut said.

As the conversation progressed, panelists emphasized that despite the often-deleterious effects of environmental injustices, there are numerous ways that individuals, organizations and governments are seeking to implement programs and strategies to address the issue.

Crawford and each of her colleagues on the panel went beyond diagnosing the various ills of environmental injustice and the attendant disparities and talked about programs, initiatives, campaigns, strategies and community collaboration and action.

“We are focused on equity. From that equity will come racial equity and environmental justice … there are new and different initiatives coming that we’ve never had,” Crawford told the audience.

Steve Dodge, director of State Regulatory Affairs at Clean Fuels Alliance America, focused on renewable fuels, including biofuels, diesel liquid fuels and biomass-based diesel fuels. He said 97 percent of heavy-duty vehicles use diesel, while 70 percent of cancer risk comes from diesel. Dodge’s power point presentation listed cancers, asthmas, premature deaths, loss workdays and avoided cost as the human consequences of air and water pollution and exposure to chemicals, toxins and a range of other pollutants.

“There are substantial benefits from using biofuels,” he said citing a health benefits study. “… there’s lots being done in individual states. The feds, not so much. They are woefully behind in reducing carbon.”

Crawford said a clean air revolution is manifesting before our eyes in large and small ways. An example is the $62 billion allocated from the Inflation Relief Act and more money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which “invests $7.5 billion in EV charging, $10 billion in clean transportation, and over $7 billion in EV battery components, critical minerals, and materials ....”  

Thompson, a nationally recognized leader for environmental justice, green business, housing, diversity and urban policy, shared a solution that took place in Buffalo while he was a state senator.

For decades, it was customary for politicians, policymakers and city planners to build highways in the midst of African-American communities, disrupting and destroying vibrant, energetic living spaces for racist reasons under the guise of progress.

In East Buffalo, NY, Thompson said that in 2003, he was able to secure between $5 million to $10 million in funding to reconfigure and/or remove parts of Express 33 which ran through the Black community. The highway displaced residents, led to businesses closing and produced pollution and other damaging health problems while causing cancer, lupus and an assortment of health problems for residents.

“I was a lone person on this effort. But 20 years later, the governor and U.S. senators support it now. There’s about $1 billion for the project,” said Thompson. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 has funding to reconnect communities by removing some of the highways which ran through Black communities.”

Thompson said, “The federal government has put [in] money but there’s nothing stopping the states from doing the same,” he said. “This requires leadership, community advocates and vision. It can be done …”

Tavares, who said she’s been trying to get mechanics to change combustibles to diesel and encouraging more fleet management conversions, said environmental justice activists and advocates have to “meet people where they are.”

Dodge said there are no simple solutions but said he was bullish on significant improvements in air and water quality, reducing carbon emissions and sees greater collaboration by the corporate sector, industries, businesses and communities.

“Technological know-how is changing every day. It’s all part of the puzzle,” said Chestnut. “We will have other challenges but we must increase capacity, be ready, make a plan and focus on any disruptions, natural or otherwise.”    

Oct. 2, 2023

Dr. Yolanda Lawson MD, president, National Medical Association

Dr. Randall Morgan MD, president/CEO, Cobb Health Institute

Dr. Louis Sullivan MD, founder, Morehouse School of Medicine; architect, National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Thousands of Black people had protested and many had died at the hands of police, White supremacists and racists as they engaged in non-violent campaigns to win the right to vote. 

Still, America did not fully sit up and hear their cries until “Bloody Sunday”, March 7, 1965. On that day TV cameras showed protestors being brutally attacked and beaten by the Alabama State Police as they marched peacefully from Selma to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. 

It was only then that the United States government took decisive action. President Lyndon B. Johnson, a week after “Bloody Sunday”, adopted the words of the civil rights leaders and declared before the nation in a televised speech to Congress, “We shall overcome.”  

Within a few months, the United States Congress adopted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 and it was signed into law by President Johnson on August 6 that year. In a nutshell, the VRA prohibited any activities by anyone to abridge the right to vote. 

More than 58 years later, Black doctors on the front lines against racism in medicine across the U. S. had hoped that the revelation of racially disparate suffering and death amidst the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID 19) would become the “Bloody Sunday” for revealing the truth about health disparities in America and escalate the long struggle to end them. But that has apparently not happened. 

“I compare this now to the civil rights movement. We were really burdened with discrimination and brutality etcetera for many years,” says Dr. Louis Sullivan, founder of the Morehouse School of Medicine, and pioneer of the 15-year-old government agency now known as the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.  “But, the incidents such as the Birmingham police treatment of Blacks on the Edmund Pettus Bridge revealed to the nation those things that had existed for a long time. So, in a way, I see that the Coronavirus has had the same impact. Health disparities has been an issue for years. But people have not been aware or haven’t really understood or taken it as seriously as many of us who were working with disparities have taken it. But now we are confronting this. And I am hoping that this really results much more in resources and attention and research and care to be devoted to the elimination of these disparities.” 

Dr. Sullivan is among leading Black physicians and HBCU administrators who agree that health disparities in the Black community – and the racism at the root of it – has been revealed to be far worse than anyone thinks. They say the disparities still must be dealt with through racial and cultural coalitions, increase in Black medical professionals and strengthening of public policies. 

“Covid 19 has really pulled the scab off the sore of the underbelly of our mistreatment as Black Americans,” says Dr. Rahn Bailey, chief of the Psychiatry Department at Louisiana State University. “It’s a long story, but a pertinent and a salient one. So when an additional stresser like the COVID 19 or the Coronavirus presents itself, we already have a subscript in American life where whatever is bad happens worse to African-Americans. We have less health care access; we have fewer hospitals in our communities; we have less access to providers or specialists; very often we get less optimal medication or management. We have data to support that.” 

The data indicates racial disparities across the board: 

• Exact numbers on COVID 19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths are fuzzy, largely because states initially did not track the pandemic by race. But, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported last year that though racial disparities narrowed as the pandemic subsided, during the surge associated with the Omicron variant in winter last year, disparities in cases once again widened with people of color, including African-Americans at 2,937 per 100,000 people, compared to cases among White people at 2,693 per 100,000. This number is astronomical given that America is approximately 12 percent African-American and 59 percent White. The New York Times reported that "during the height of the Omicron variant, Covid killed Black people in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people."

The broad disparities continue among other diseases: 

• According to the National Cancer Institute, Black men die of prostate cancer at twice the rate of White men. 
• Although Black women have a 4 percent lower rate of breast cancer diagnosis, the death rate for Black women is 40 percent higher than White women, according to the American Cancer Association. 
• America’s leading cause of death, heart disease, causes one of every three deaths in the U. S. But African-Americans and Latinos experience “double the rate of premature deaths” from heart disease compared to their White counterparts, according to the National Institute of Health.    
• According to the CDC, “Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias.”  
• Black children have a “500 percent higher death rate from asthma compared with White children”, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. 
• The disparities even persist in treatments and care. For example, of amputations, Black patients lose limbs at three times the rate of White patients, despite progress in diabetic research, according to the NIH. 

Despite the COVID 19 disparities that drew a new focus to the issue of racial health disparities, ending the racial gaps in deaths is still a struggle, says Yolanda Lawson, MD; an obstetrician and gynecologist, who serves as president of the National Medical Association, which has a membership of more than 50,000 Black physicians. 

“It's not that as a Black OB/GYN I didn't know this. I've always known” of the disparities, Lawson said in an interview. “But, I thought with awareness we would see a turn around. We would see changes.” 

She pointed out that after the videotaped killing of George Floyd by now imprisoned Derek Chauvin, “everybody got onto the equity bandwagon. Yet, here we are still talking and we know that there's still this wide gap.” 

In addition to racism, pure and simple, researchers have often laid health disparities at the feet of what is called “social determinants;” which, in a nutshell, means common lifestyles of particular groups of people that often stem from systemic racism.  

For example, at least one report written jointly by researchers at KFF and the Epic Research Network, said Blacks and Hispanics suffered more infections and deaths during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic because they were at greater risk of exposure to the virus “due to their work, living, and transportation situations. They are more likely to be working in low-income jobs that cannot be done from home, to be living in larger households in densely populated areas, and to utilize public or shared modes of transportation.” 

Likewise, economic and social circumstances such as poverty and food deserts often lead to illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.  

“And even when there are solutions such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which assured that approximately 20-35 million adults, who previously had been uninsured, received coverage by Medicaid, there would still be cracks in the system,” says, Dr. Randall Morgan, an orthopedic surgeon who is president/CEO of the Cobb Health Institute, the research arm of the National Medical Association. 

“So, it’s a tough problem. Oh, it’s huge. It’s horrible. In some cases it’s inhumane,” Morgan said. “But, people have to accept what’s available for them. And so much of that depends on where you live and what your income is and what your level of education is - the social determinates of health.” 

Despite the glaring disparities, advocates on the front lines have often run into brick walls when trying to call attention to them and trying to raise funds to end them.  

For example, Bill Thomas Jr., an advocate for proton therapy treatment at the Hampton University Proton Therapy Cancer Institute, has been leading a near-futile battle for more money to end cancer disparities as the HBCU's associate vice president for governmental relations. 

“We are just trying to figure out how to communicate this particular matter to the General Assembly so they support it financially to save lives,” Thomas told WAVY Radio in Virginia during a rally. “We are not building roads, we are not building casinos,” Thomas said. “We are trying to ease human suffering and save lives.” 

In an interview, Thomas pointed to observations made by former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, concerning the Commonwealth's underfunding of HBCUs - both public and private. In a recent op-editorial, Wilder quoted a Goldman Sachs report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch titled, “Historically Black, Historically Underfunded.”

Wilder's op-ed stated that “public HBCUs have 54% less in assets per student" than public predominately White universities while "private HBCUs have 79% less than private" predominately White universities. 

Like Wilder, Thomas asks the question, "'why the legislature and the current administration cannot redress the wrongs of legal discrimination?'"

Support to undergird the programs of HBCUs could indeed be one of the key answers to the problem of health disparities, Lawson says. With an increase in Black doctors, more hospitals in Black neighborhoods and more medical programs at HBCUs, health disparities could begin to close, she said.

An NMA program called Project Impact 2.0 has two goals, Lawson says - first, to increase the number of African-American researchers and to increase the numbers of Blacks included in research studies.

But, just like with the civil rights successes, Lawson adds, the battle will take people of all races and walks of life working together.  

“We at NMA hope to become a unifying voice. I think one of my strengths is building alliances with others. I think by building alliances, you create louder voices. And I want to call people to task so that it's not just words and great manuscript. I want to see impact at my community level. I think NMA lends to that. We have over 130 state and local societies; we're divided into six geographic regions and we have 26 different medical specialties that are represented within the organization," Lawson says, "We have the infrastructure to do this - to not only bring a voice to the national level in the way of policy and advocacy, but again, make a community level impact. It just has to happen.” 

President Joe Biden addressing the audience at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Phoenix Awards PHOTO: Kea Taylor/Imagine Photography) 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After years of enduring Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill working to dismantle Civil Rights laws the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) concluded their annual conference last week, fired up and ready for a new season of political battles with a new generation of foot soldiers enlisted in the fight.

“Why are they trying to prevent economic prosperity and wealth-building in communities of color?” asked CBC Chairman Stephen Hosford (D-Nev.) during a forum. Flanked by Isabella Casillas Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), they vowed to fight conservative attempts to turn back the clock on Black economic and political progress.

The  SBA has temporarily suspended new applications to its 8(a) programs after the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in July ruled against people using the “socially disadvantaged” category as a status to gain entry to the program.

But Hosford said “The Congressional Black Caucus will fight, defend, and (hold) the line” when it comes to these programs.

“It is very important that we create wealth and my question to these individuals who are standing in the way and filing these lawsuits is what are they afraid of? It is important for all of America to know who is bringing these lawsuits and why they are doing it.  They are attempting to take us back at a time when we are making so much progress.”

Whether voting right, economic or criminal justice, dozens of topics were covered during the conference mixed with parties and issues forums.

Trial lawyer Ben Crump held a forum at the convention center with the families of those killed by police brutality. “When you talk about equality, equity, and access,” whether it is through housing, education, employment, or healthcare we realize the power of our dollars,” he said.

The group discussed a path forward for police reform since the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act has still not been passed in Congress. Families will discuss what reforms have been successful on the local level with lawmakers.

“I gotta believe a greater good has to result from my son being killed,” said RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols, who died after he was beaten by Memphis police officers Jan. 7.

Other participants included:

Mona Harden, mother of Ronald Greene; Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner; Tiffany Crutcher, sister of Terence Crutcher; Allisa Findley, sister of Botham Jean. The lawmakers present included: Rep. Lucy McBath; Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Rep. Steven Horsford, and Sen. Cory Booker.

On Saturday morning, Karen Clarke Sheard and Reverend Dr. Gina Stewart were the special guests at the CBC Day of Healing, formerly the CBC prayer breakfast, at the Convention Center.

The Day of Healing was a new feature of the ALC, that offered moments of reflection and rejuvenation for various communities.

 Nicole Austin-Hillery, President and CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, said, “In the spirit of this year’s conference theme, Securing Our Democracy, Protecting Our Freedoms, Uplifting Our Culture, the Day of Healing grounds us in our purpose and fortifies our will to remain steadfast in our commitment to community empowerment.”

On Saturday night Vice President Kamala Harris introduced President Biden during the CBC’s annual Phoenix Awards, A Black Tie event that is the highlight of the ALC.

“The CBC has always been a conscience of our country, a truthteller.  Truths about where we have been and where we must go,” Harris told the audience Saturday night. 

“Tonight, let us continue to speak truth.  Across America there is a full-on attack on many of the hard-fought, hard-won freedoms that the CBC has achieved: the freedom to vote; to teach America's full history; to address inequity and diversity; to love who you love; to access education, healthcare, and economic opportunity; and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body,” she said to applause.

During his speech President Biden singled out a number of CBC members.

He described House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries “a leader with integrity and courage.  Courage.  Courage.”

He also pointed out Justin Jones, 28, member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, calling him "a new voice who gives us hope for the future.”

The audience chuckled as Biden pointed out Hip Hop artists LL Cool J and MC Lyte in the Ballroom: “LL J…Cool J…uhh…(laughter)…By the way, that boy has got, he’s got, I think that man has got biceps bigger than my thighs…and MC Lyte.”

 But Biden concluded on a serious note by reminding those present that the CBC has come a long away after six decades.

“In February of 1971, the year before I got to the United States Senate, 200 years ago,” he said to laughter. “13 Black members of Congress, determined to create a better future and leverage their collective strength, formed the Congressional Black Caucus, the conscience of Congress, calling us to follow our nation’s North Star;  A light for the dreams and the pains of centuries of enslaved people in America.”

He said the CBC was created to fight for “The idea - once the most simple and the most powerful idea in the history of the world - that we’re all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our entire lives.  We’ve never lived up to that fully, but we’ve never walked away from it either.”