For Immediate Release
June 13, 2024
Media Contact:
Sarah Mizes-Tan
smizes-tan@cpehn.org
510-832-1160 x 204
SACRAMENTO – The California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) urges Governor Gavin Newsom to adopt the legislature’s budget which rejects proposed cuts to health and human services funding, including: the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program for undocumented immigrants, the Indian Health Program and the Future of Public Health funding.
The Legislature’s budget avoids these devastating cuts to programs that support low-income families and communities of color across California. Their version relies on money from rainy day fund reserves and suspending net operating loss credits for businesses.
Balancing the budget on the backs of those who can least afford it accelerates inequities.
“It was indefensible for Governor Newsom to propose cutting In-Home Support Services for California residents for no other reason but their immigration status and the legislature rightly rejected this discriminatory cut,” CPEHN Managing Policy Director Ronald Coleman Baeza said.
We urge the Governor to adopt the legislature’s budget that ensures all Californians have access to IHSS. Cuts to the IHSS program for undocumented immigrants would single out a population simply because of their immigration status, an unprecedented move for Governor Newsom. It also would devastate immigrant families, potentially exposing them to deportation due to the risk of public charge that comes with institutionalization, while driving them deeper into poverty as a result of lost financial support for family caregivers.
Cuts to the Indian Health Program and the Future of Public Health funding could have devastating impacts on California’s communities of color and historically disenfranchised communities.
CPEHN urges Governor Newsom to stand with California families, and adopt and sign the Legislature’s version of the budget.
The Governor and the Legislature must approve a final budget by June 30.