Posted on January 25, 2021
In his first actions in the White House, President Biden signed a number of executive orders, many of which will have impacts on New Jersey children, such as climate change, the COVID-19 health care crisis and race equity. You can review these fully at the White House presidential actions page.
In particular, the following orders below reflect proposals ACNJ has advocated in favor of:
-
- Full census count regardless of citizenship status. The Biden administration has affirmed longstanding law that Congressional representation will be divided among states based on the total number of persons living there counted by the census, regardless of citizenship status. The Biden administration also revoked previous administration orders that citizenship status be included in "apportionment" counts. Children deserve fair representation in our political system.
- Preserving and fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The Biden administration issued a short order, that requires the Department of Homeland Security to take "all appropriate actions" to preserve and fortify DACA, which de-prioritizes immigration enforcement against certain undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, have obeyed the law, and stayed in school or enlisted in the military.ACNJ will continue to keep you informed of changes to federal law that affect New Jersey's kids. These orders are a step in the right direction.
- Address the growing hunger Crisis. President Biden is calling on Congress to extend the 15 percent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit increase, investing $3 billion to help women, infants and children get the food they need and other key steps. The President is also asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to consider taking the following steps to provide nutrition assistance to working families, including to:
- Issue new guidance increasing the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) by approximately 15 percent to accurately reflect the costs of missing meals and make it easier for households to claim benefits.
- Allow larger emergency SNAP allotments for the lowest-income households.
- Update food assistance benefits to reflect the true cost of a basic healthy diet under the USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan.
