National Assembly Today

By Zachary Tashman On January 7, 2020, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a proposed rule that would weaken the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulatory requirement on state and local governments receiving HUD funding to report on housing discrimination and access problems under the 1968 Fair Housing Act (FHA), as […]

Increasingly, philanthropic and government partners are recognizing the true value that human service organizations provide to our communities by building everyone’s well-being. One of the latest instances is observed by Susan Dreyfus, president and CEO of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, in a December 18, 2019 “Commentary: Strengthening Human Services Community-Based Organizations” in […]

By Cynthia Lewin, Venable LLP As a board member of PurchasingPoint®, the National Assembly’s discount group purchasing program, I know how every dollar counts at most nonprofits. For that reason, I’m delighted to share that nonprofits received a lovely gift right before Christmas with the repeal of the notorious nonprofit parking and public transit tax […]

By Zachary Tashman The Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2019 (H.R.5308), introduced by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), would expand the free school lunch and breakfast programs to millions of children. The bill would extend free school meals to all children from households that fall at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty […]

Harmful cultural models — or inaccurate “deeply held understandings that motivate thought and behavior in largely unconscious and automatic ways” — can influence policymakers’ application of harsh requirements that limit access to programs such as hunger prevention. The start of state legislative sessions offers an opportunity to provide reframed messages that background those unproductive models, […]