New year, new season of @offkiltershow!

I’m super excited to share a preview of what we’ve got lined up for the season ahead.

And to do that, I’m gonna get a little personal. . .

🧵

tcf.org/content/commen… 1/x With burnout spreading like wildfire throughout progressive advocacy circles even before the COVID-19 pandemic started nearly 3 years ago – I’ve been feeling called to take the pod in a bit of a different direction this season. 2/x

THREAD: As we mark the 50th anniversary of #SSI, it’s time to reckon with the fact that SSI’s woefully outdated eligibility rules—from a $2,000 asset limit to marriage penalties and more—have become a new form of large-scale institutionalization without walls. #SSIat50🧵 Oct. 30 marks 50 years since Supplemental Security Income, or #SSI was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972.

Congress’s intent in establishing the program was to ensure that disabled and older adults “would no longer have to subsist on below-poverty incomes.” 2/x

Welp, the @SenateFinance Committee is about to hold the first Senate hearing on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in nearly a quarter-century.

The subtext: SSI’s been forgotten for so long, even the Senate holding a damn hearing on it is historic.

*settles in to live-tweet* A little more on the history while we’re waiting for the hearing to start:

—The last Senate hearing on SSI was in 1998.

—And the last Senate hearing on the need to update SSI’s eligibility criteria was in 1987—in a hearing that even then was titled “The Forgotten Safety Net.”

HUGE #DemolishDisabledPoverty news:

As @SenSherrodBrown @SenWarren & other Dems continue to push to include long-overdue SSI updates in #BuildBackBetter, the Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing on the need to update SSI *next week*!

**Deets👇
finance.senate.gov/hearings/polic… Even the hearing is historic given how long SSI has been forgotten by DC lawmakers — this will be the first Senate hearing on the need to update SSI literally in decades.

#DemolishDisabledPoverty

HUGE NEWS: President Biden’s SSI proposals would bring 3.3 million people out of poverty, and cut poverty among SSI beneficiaries *IN HALF*, according to the @UrbanInstitute.

@citizencohn has the scoop: huffpost.com/entry/ssi-upda…

#DemolishDisabledPoverty These jaw-dropping numbers are a stark reminder of what @mattbc and I mean by #DemolishDisabledPoverty—as well as the historic opportunity Democrats have right now to improve millions of lives, as they debate whether to include long-overdue SSI improvements in #BuildBackBetter.

“Congress has failed to uphold its responsibility to SSI recipients by allowing the SSI program to become so outdated that people w/disabilities and seniors are struggling to meet their most basic needs.”

—@RepRaulGrijalva @janschakowsky @RepBowman @AyannaPressley @JimmyGomezCA In a joint statement issued today, @RepRaulGrijalva @janschakowsky @RepBowman @RepPressley @JimmyGomezCA are calling on their Ways and Means colleagues to include SSI in the #BuildBackBetter reconciliation bill.

Full statement: admin-grijalva.house.gov/house-members-…
#DemolishDisabledPoverty

The @SenateFinance Cmte is holding a hearing this AM on @SocialSecurity's "customer service" during the pandemic.

This may sound boring, but here's the subtext: SSI applications & awards are at *historic lows* -- and Trump appointees are still running SSA.

So imma live-tweet... @SenateFinance @SocialSecurity Up first is Grace Kim, deputy commissioner for operations at @SocialSecurity.

She's trying to paint a rosy picture, saying "reaching vulnerable communities is our priority."

The data say otherwise.

https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1363137375698882563?s=20

Looking for hot takes on Biden's #AmericanFamiliesPlan?

@TCFdotorg's got you covered with this round-up of reactions from me, @pelhamprog @JulieKashen @drtaylor09 & more 👇

tcf.org/content/about-… @TCFdotorg @pelhamprog @JulieKashen @drtaylor09 tl;dr on my take:

Together with the #AmericanRescuePlan and the #AmericanJobsPlan, the #AmericanFamiliesPlan represents an historic commitment to addressing America’s shameful and unjust levels of poverty and inequality.

2/

BREAKING: A coalition of House & Senate Democrats—led by @SenSherrodBrown @JamaalBowmanNY @SenWarren @SenSanders w/@RonWyden—have teamed up to call on @POTUS to include long-overdue updates to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) in the #AmericanFamilyPlan 👇 @SenSherrodBrown @JamaalBowmanNY @SenWarren @SenSanders @RonWyden @POTUS *list of signers cont'd:

THREAD: As news rolls out about the next round of economic recovery measures—here’s a plea for the Biden team not to forget a critical program for low-income seniors & disabled people that’s been left to wither on the vine for decades:

Supplemental Security Income, aka SSI. Nearly 8 million low-income seniors and people with disabilities rely on SSI for subsistence income.

The income support SSI provides is critical—but benefits are so meager, they consign people to abject poverty.

The max SSI benefit for 2021 is $794/mo, about $26 a day.

2/

THREAD: Grim new data from the @SocialSecurity Administration show a *huge* drop in low-income elderly & disabled folks able to access SSI during the pandemic. Field office closures are clearly part of this, but there are deeper problems too. Let’s unpack. npr.org/2021/02/19/969… First, the data: January 2021 marked the lowest number of new SSI awards per capita in the program’s history. (The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th lowest months were also during the pandemic, so this has been a steady and worsening trend.) 2/

Nothing says the end of the Trump administration quite like the simultaneous withdrawal of two major regulatory attacks on Food Stamps (!!!) One of the proposals on its own would have stripped over 3 million people of food assistance and 1 million kids of free school meals:

https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1153642980202467328?s=20

so hey, remember how the Trump admin was trying to strip hundreds of thousands of disabled people of #SocialSecurity, to “save” $2.6 billion in disability benefits, via a backdoor administrative action?

https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1221449464818405377

despite receiving an avalanche of comments from the disability community on the harm this cruelty-is-the-point proposed rule would do...

just days after losing the election...

Trump’s #SocialSecurity administration has now sent the cuts to OMB for approval as a final rule:

BREAKING: @AGKarlRacine, @NewYorkStateAG & a coalition of 22 Attorneys General have sent a 🔥 letter calling on Trump & Ag. @SecretarySonny Perdue to immediately suspend a rulemaking that could slash Food Stamps for 3.1 million people amid #COVIDー19 if allowed to take effect. Here’s the full letter: oag.dc.gov/sites/default/…

#handsoffsnap

As U.S. jobless claims skyrocket amid #COVID19, thousands of unemployed Floridians have been unable to access benefits due to a broken claims system.

But the system's working just as state GOP leaders intended.

And Florida's just the tip of the iceberg.

(AN OP-ED & A THREAD): First, the op-ed (h/t @ericmgarcia for the great edit): washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…

in light of the news that the Trump admin has FINALLY hit pause on taking Food Stamps away from 700,000 jobless workers in the middle of the #COVID19 pandemic... i put together a short history of the past month’s events, to put this in full ugly context:

(thread) MARCH 12: Trump's USDA confirms it has considered whether to suspend its Food Stamp cuts due to #COVID19 19—and has decided to let them take effect April 1.

https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1238235382132748288?s=20

Holy hell. Politico is reporting that @SenRickScott, back when he was governor, DELIBERATELY BUILT FLORIDA’S UNEMPLOYMENT SYSTEM TO FAIL.

“It was about making it harder for people to get benefits so the unemployment numbers were low to give the gov. something to brag about.” Then, after deliberately building a system that didn’t work so as to keep the unemployment numbers low, @SenRickScott—and @GovRonDeSantis after him, so he’s complicit here—ignored years of audits warning of major system problems:

https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1245360304747405321?s=21

https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1245360304747405321

Putting on my former legal aid lawyer hat for a sec to explain why it’s so important that we temporarily halt “continuing disability reviews” for #SocialSecurity disability benefits as part of #coronavirus response (as @mattbc & I have been urging).

thread: @mattbc For people who rely on SSDI or SSI benefits, continuing disability reviews (CDRs) are periodic fire-drills that generally require not just lots of paperwork, but also multiple dr visits, trips to the #SocialSecurity office, and in many cases, visits to SSA consulting docs.

2/

The injunction halting Trump’s SNAP cuts amid #coronavirus is:

a) obviously great news & a relief to millions

b) a scathing rebuke to Trump & USDA for not listening to Congress or the American people thru the comment process

c) a helluva reminder that comments matter

thread: Since the opinion is 84 pages long, I read it so you don’t have to.

But for those who want to follow along:

Injunction: oag.dc.gov/sites/default/…

Full opinion: oag.dc.gov/sites/default/…

This is a blatant lie.

1) You authorized & are encouraging states to cut off Medicaid for millions who can’t meet rigid work reporting requirements.

2) Now you’re pushing Medicaid block grants, which could strip 14-21 million people of health insurance if enacted nationwide.

https://twitter.com/SeemaCMS/status/1225493716586110978

Make no mistake: the Trump administration has spent the past two years actively dismantling Medicaid by fiat—after failing to gut it legislatively as part of ACA repeal.

This, from @JulianCastro, is by far the most ambitious and sweeping anti-hunger plan we’ve seen from a candidate yet.

nytimes.com/2019/11/27/us/… @JulianCastro The plan includes a wide range of much-needed policies to expand nutrition assistance, declaring “the right to eat is a human right.”

A few highlights (with more to come once the campaign releases the full plan)....