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michael bennet
Why Is Biden’s Medicaid Office Holding Out on Voter Registration?
Several states have attempted to implement automatic voter registration based on Medicare enrollment—but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still stalling.
Jul 16, 2023
Recent efforts to expand access to automatic voter registration are again calling attention to old promises by the Biden administration to enhance the accessibility of civic engagement and continued failures by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to actualize them. Even this week,
a piece in the magazine Bolts highlighted how a holdout by Biden officials continues to stall efforts to support low-income residents in registering to vote, despite recent Oregon legislation to automatically register Medicaid enrollees.
A 2021 Executive Order by President Joe Biden sought to promote access to voting, particularly by “expanding access to voter registration and election information,” in a directive to agencies to provide additional access to voter registration with services that directly engage with the public. Automatic voter registration through Medicaid enrollment offices is a common-sense way to expand opportunity for civic engagement among those most likely to be excluded by current voter registration infrastructure and enables the National Voter Registration Act to move towards achieving its full potential.
Automatic voter registration (AVR) has proven effective in increasing voter registrations across a myriad of states—and not just by the number of voters registered, but in ensuring that the registered voter population is more diverse. And states like Oregon, Massachusetts, and Colorado have worked to take this even further, through AVR for Medicaid recipients.
The holdout by Brooks-LaSure, and CMS more broadly, stands in stark contrast with explicit steps set out by President Biden to improve accessibility to voter engagement.
And despite what the wishy-washy response from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the issue might indicate, AVR based on Medicaid enrollment has tremendous potential:
- Medicaid already verifies the core information used in voter registration records, such as name, date of birth, address, and citizenship status, and can therefore easily process existing information for registering voters, without introducing additional questions, paperwork, or tricky-to-navigate processes.
- AVR through Medicaid enrollment also maximizes potential for all eligible voters in a household to be registered. Compare this to singular voter registrations processed at the Departments of Motor Vehicle (DMV) which might exclude eligible voters within a household as the DMV only interfaces with the individual there, rather than a whole household’s information like with Medicaid enrollment.
- Historically, Medicaid enrollment has been negatively correlated with voter registration and voting; here’s an easy way to address that disparity to increase civic engagement access for low-income Americans.
- Using Medicaid enrollment for AVR has the potential to make voter registration significantly more diverse, as Medicaid beneficiaries are more likely to be people of color, female, and low-income than the rest of the eligible voter population. While AVR at DMVs has been successful in the past, it still misses many eligible voters who don’t interact with the DMV, particularly low-income folks and people of color.
- In many states, Medicaid does annual enrollment updates, which results in voter information being more regularly updated and a registered voter population that is more accurate, compared to data from the DMV that is updated much less frequently.
Despite the overwhelming positive evidence of improvements to voter registration infrastructure, CMS has taken no action to enable states that have passed legislation to actually use Medicaid for automatic voter registration. In a response to a letter from Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in support of Colorado’s Medicaid efforts, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure expressed aversion to the use of Medicaid for voter registration, citing conflict with Medicaid privacy concerns. CMS rules currently prevent Medicaid agencies from using enrollment data for non-Medicaid purposes, but CMS can waive these provisions to implement certain proposals at the state level. Even prior CMS officials have indicated support for state-based health insurance exchanges facilitating voter registration.
The holdout by Brooks-LaSure, and CMS more broadly, stands in stark contrast with explicit steps set out by President Biden to improve accessibility to voter engagement. And CMS has resisted fully stepping into its authority in a number of other Executive Orders and actions called for by President Biden—notably, but not limited to the Executive Order on Competition in its calls for coverage for generic drugs and biosimilars. The far-reaching authorities and impacts of CMS, and its role in healthcare for all Americans, deserve additional scrutiny and oversight from the Department of Health and Human Services.
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GOP Taking Budget Advice From Trump Official Who Wants to Cut $2 Trillion From Medicaid
"The Republican playbook is always to drive more people deeper into poverty, while giving kickbacks and tax breaks to their super-rich friends."
Feb 20, 2023
The right-wing official who served as budget director for the Trump administration is reportedly playing a significant advisory role for House Republicans as they seek to leverage a fast-approaching debt ceiling crisis to enact spending cuts that would disproportionately impact low-income households.
According toThe Washington Post, former Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought "has emerged as one of the central voices shaping the looming showdown over federal spending and the national debt."
"As Republicans struggle to craft a strategy for confronting the Biden administration over the debt ceiling, which limits how much the government can borrow to pay for spending Congress has already approved, Vought has supplied them with a seemingly inexhaustible stream of advice: suggestions for negotiating with the White House, briefings about dealing with the media, a 104-page memo that proposes specific spending levels for every federal agency," the Post reported Sunday.
More specifically, Vought has suggested that the GOP sideline efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare and instead focus on a "push to obliterate almost all other major forms of federal spending, especially programs that benefit lower-income Americans, and dare Biden to stand in the way."
Vought's agenda, the Post noted, proposes $9 trillion in federal spending cuts over the next 10 years, targeting thousands of domestic programs including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
If adopted, Vought's proposal would inflict $2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, potentially compromising coverage for millions across the United States—and compounding the impact of lapsing pandemic protections.
Vought's proposed cuts to SNAP—a food aid program long attacked by Republicans—would amount to $400 billion. A recent survey found that 64% of respondents said affording food is one of the biggest challenges they're facing amid elevated inflation.
Tens of millions across the U.S. are currently facing what advocates have dubbed a "hunger cliff" as pandemic-related emergency boosts to SNAP funding expire.
SNAP accounts for a tiny fraction of the federal government's overall spending.
"At a moment when food distribution centers are seeing increases in demand as American families struggle to feed their children, Republican lawmakers are putting families in their political crossfire by threatening to dramatically decrease spending on essential programs like SNAP. The timing of this could not be worse," said Ailen Arreaza, executive director of ParentsTogether. “Further cuts to essential policies helping families to keep food on the table would be unconscionable—and those politicians responsible will pay a political price."
"The only thing more odious than pushing for $3 trillion of unpaid-for tax cuts is pushing for $3 trillion of tax cuts and $3 trillion in cuts to healthcare and nutrition for low- and middle-income families."
Vought, who is also urging Republicans to cut Labor Department funding in half and slash the Affordable Care Act, presents such austerity as needed to rein in an out-of-control federal bureaucracy. But as the Post notes, Vought "oversaw enormous increases in the national debt as Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget," making clear to critics that his priority is gutting programs that low-income people rely on to meet basic needs.
"The Republican playbook is always to drive more people deeper into poverty, while giving kickbacks and tax breaks to their super-rich friends," said progressive organizer and former congressional candidate Melanie D'Arrigo.
Last week, more than 70 House Republicans introduced legislation that would make 2017 Trump tax cuts for individuals permanent, a major giveaway to the rich that would cost the federal government around $2.2 trillion in revenue through 2032.
The Biden White House and congressional Democrats have indicated that they would oppose federal spending cuts as part of any deal to raise the debt ceiling and prevent a catastrophic default, which could come as soon as this summer if lawmakers don't act.
"The only thing more odious than pushing for $3 trillion of unpaid-for tax cuts is pushing for $3 trillion of tax cuts and $3 trillion in cuts to healthcare and nutrition for low- and middle-income families," tweeted Brendan Duke, a senior adviser to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
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Coalition Representing 24 Million Workers Demands Senate Vote on PRO Act Before Midterms
"Passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act would level the playing field for these workers, and show people which side the Senate Democrats are on," said one advocate.
Oct 05, 2022
A broad coalition of progressive advocacy groups and unions representing 24 million workers on Wednesday doubled down on its demand for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to hold a vote on landmark labor reform legislation before next month's pivotal midterm elections.
"Workers across the country can't afford to keep waiting for the Senate to take action."
At issue is the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a popular bill that aims to push U.S. labor law in a more worker-friendly direction. If passed, the legislation would ban anti-union "right-to-work" laws and nullify those enacted by GOP officials in 27 states, strengthen penalties against employers who engage in unlawful union-busting, and make it easier for newly unionized workers to finalize their first collective bargaining agreement, among other reforms.
"As potentially illegal harassment, retaliation, and union-busting by Amazon, Starbucks, and Apple continues to make headlines," the Worker Power Coalition said in a statement, "workers across the country can't afford to keep waiting for the Senate to take action."
The coalition--made up of a few dozen unions, environmental justice groups, and left-leaning research and advocacy organizations--spent the past seven weeks mobilizing in key battleground states.
Members met with Senate Democrats in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Virginia--the first five are states where the outcomes of hotly contested races will help determine control of the upper chamber. They also participated in direct actions in Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin, three states in which Democratic Senate candidates are vying to unseat or replace Republicans.
"We must do everything possible to support the growing number of workers who are joining together to improve their workplaces," said Communications Workers of America secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens.
"Our labor laws are outdated and broken. Employers flagrantly violate workers' rights, hold mandatory anti-union meetings, and intimidate and even fire workers for organizing," Steffens noted. "Workers need for the Senate to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act now so they can organize for safer jobs, better working conditions, and higher pay."
Although the House approved the PRO Act earlier this year, the bill has yet to make it to the desk of President Joe Biden due to a combination of Republican obstructionism and Democratic acquiescence. In keeping with his pledge to be the "most pro-union president" in U.S. history, Biden has endorsed the measure and urged lawmakers to pass it.
The biggest barrier is the Senate's 60-vote filibuster, an anti-democratic rule giving the GOP minority veto power over most legislation--something that conservative Senate Democrats, including Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), have refused to eliminate.
But even if Democrats managed to repeal the filibuster, the question remains whether corporate-friendly senators in the party would support the PRO Act. Sinema, her Arizona colleague Mark Kelly, and Mark Warner of Virginia--three of the Democratic lawmakers visited recently by the Worker Power Coalition--have not yet co-sponsored the pro-worker legislation.
According to the coalition, Kelly and other vulnerable Senate Democrats--including Michael Bennet in Colorado, Raphael Warnock in Georgia, Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, and Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire--ought to welcome a chance to vote for the PRO Act, since doing so could help them differentiate themselves from their GOP opponents.
\u201cTennessee has been a "right-to-work" state since 1947, but Republicans want to put it in their state constitution after seeing the recent (unsuccessful) effort to overturn RTW in Virginia, and because Congressional Democrats want to ban RTW via the PRO Act\nhttps://t.co/5SB95wdFcC\u201d— Rachel Cohen (@Rachel Cohen) 1664459523
A fresh poll commissioned by the coalition found that more than 80% of voters under 40 say that one of the key issues motivating them to vote is a desire for improved workers' rights. Data from the survey shows that this demographic is driving Democrats' better-than-expected performance in polls with just 35 days to go until November 8.
"In the face of right-wing extremism seeking to undermine our democracy, it gives me hope that people across the country are fighting back--including workers standing up against big corporations, exercising democracy in the workplace," said Indivisible Project co-founder and co-executive director Leah Greenberg.
"People are desperate for Democratic senators to stand side-by-side with them in this struggle and take action," Greenberg added. "Passing the Protecting the Right to Organize Act would level the playing field for these workers, and show people which side the Senate Democrats are on."
In a letter sent to Schumer last month, the coalition implored the powerful New York Democrat to "bring the PRO Act to a vote as soon as possible."
"The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the need for workers to have a voice on their safety and working conditions," the groups wrote. "Now, inflation is causing economic hardship for working people around the nation."
"The time is now for Congress to enact commonsense reforms to our labor laws and give workers a real voice at their jobs," they added. "The PRO Act is the best chance in decades to shift power away from corporate interests and to everyday Americans who work to provide for their families."
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