Action Alert: Fund Community Health Centers & Comstock Census Amendment

Dear friends, thank you for tuning-in to our Action Alerts, as they are necessary and urgent in these times. When you reach out to our elected officials, you are making a difference. Every time you pick up the phone to defend our rights and the funding and programs that serve our community, you are making a difference.

Funding for Community Health Centers

Source: Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations

Call the Congressional Hotline at (202) 224-3121 NOW and ask your representatives not to let federal funding for community health centers expire by September 30. Ask them to fully fund the Health Center Program!

Without this funding source, community health centers across the country, which provide 27 million Americans with primary care, and are the healthcare safety net for our community members, will take drastic funding cuts and tear the safety net apart.

Our International Community Health Services (ICHS), with clinics in the Chinatown/International District, South Seattle, Bellevue and Shoreline, would take a $1.8 million cut if this federal funding source ends. Last year ICHS treated 28,660 patients and had 363,638 encounters helping individuals, families and communities with culturally competent and linguistically accessible comprehensive care. This would have a devastating impact on their ability to serve our most vulnerable community members. This is just one example of what is at stake with this funding source. Don’t delay, please take a few minutes and call now.

Comstock Census Amendment

Call the Congressional Hotline at (202) 224-3121 and ask your Congressional Representative to oppose the Comstock census amendment to the Fiscal Year 2018 bill. We need to defeat this amendment. It was supposed to be considered last week, but due to Hurricane Harvey, it was delayed until this week. Thanks for taking action now.

Background

Why is an accurate Census count so important to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), and why is more funding, not less, required for an accurate count?

• See the factsheet and tables on Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians in the 2020 Census.

The bill: H.R. 3354, “Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018,” otherwise known as the “minibus” appropriations bill funding eight of 12 appropriations accounts not previously considered on the floor. The Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations section is Division C.

The amendment: Sponsored by Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) and now eight (8) co-sponsors, including Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of our own Washington state. The amendment would transfer $30 million from the Census Bureau’s Periodic Censuses and Programs account (which includes the 2020 Census and American Community Survey [ACS]) to the Commerce Department’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program.

The concern: The allocation for the Census Bureau already is too low. House appropriators know this and await an updated cost estimate from the Trump administration. Consequences of underfunding this year and an insufficient budget request for the Census undermine rigorous final testing and timely early preparations for the 2020 Census. For example, there is NO funding for the vital “partnership program” in 2018 that will connect the Census Bureau with state and local governments for the 2020 Census. The critical 2018 “dress rehearsal” was cut from three sites to one, leaving no opportunity to test census operations in rural communities before 2020. Cutting the Census Bureau’s budget further will threaten a successful census in all states and communities.

While the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program is an important resource in many communities, the 2020 Census cannot afford to lose any more funding without putting a cost-effective and accurate census at risk in every district and community. Census costs will go up, and accuracy will go down. Lawmakers must find an acceptable alternative offset to achieve the goal of the Comstock census amendment.