[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 9 (Friday, January 30, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E81]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PASSIONATE COMPASSION

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                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 30, 2004

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I am increasingly distressed 
by the trend of public policy at the federal level. For years people 
blamed federal deficits and increased federal spending on excesses in 
programs that seek to alleviate poverty and meet the needs of lower 
income people. Today, from the standpoint of those of us who care about 
social justice, we have the worst of both worlds--a steeply increasing 
deficit at the budget level while the percentage of national resources 
devoted to meeting the economic needs of the poorest of our citizens 
decreases.
  I try to keep this issue constantly in focus, and I am greatly aided 
in doing so by one of the most dedicated fighters for social justice I 
have even met--Mark A. Sullivan, Jr., the Executive Director of 
Citizens for Citizens, an excellent community action program based in 
Fall River, Massachusetts, with responsibilities in much of the 
southeastern part of our state.
  Mark Sullivan is a man of very considerable talent. His intelligence, 
commitment, and organizing skills could have led him to a number of 
lucrative careers. He has instead for the past thirty years stayed at 
his post in trying to fight poverty and economic deprivation.
  Sadly, his job had been made much harder in recent years by the 
distorted budget priorities being followed by the current 
administration and Congressional majority. Too often people here vote 
for cuts as if they were dealing with abstractions without 
understanding the terrible human consequences of their efforts. No one 
I know does a better job of trying to make these impacts clear than 
Mark Sullivan, and in a recent excellent article in the Fall River 
Herald News, by Deborah Allard-Bernardi, Mr. Sullivan gives one of the 
expositions at which he excels about the negative effects of what we 
have been doing.
  Because in my mind no issue is more important than reversing this 
trend of cutting back on the help we give to the neediest among us, I 
ask that this important discussion by Mark Sullivan in the Fall River 
Herald News be printed here.

                 [From the Herald News, Jan. 22, 2004]

                      CFC Decries Lack of Funding

                      (By Deborah Allard-Bernardi)

       Fall River.--If society doesn't see the invisible man, it's 
     not looking for him, according to Mark A. Sullivan Jr., 
     executive director of Citizens for Citizens Inc.
       Actually, it's not just the invisible man Sullivan is 
     worried about, but an entire society of poor people including 
     the elderly, single women and children as well as men. He 
     says they . . . by the very entity that is charged with 
     caring for them: the government.
       ``Low-income people are off the radar screen,'' said 
     Sullivan at a press conference Wednesday. ``People in this 
     country are locked into being poor.''
       It's been cuts after cuts for CFC and other agencies that 
     provide food, fuel assistance, housing, day care and other 
     core services to the needy. CFC's most recent plight is a new 
     unemployment formula that is threatening to close its Head 
     Start program before its usual summer hiatus.
       The increased unemployment charges that CFC must pay to 
     stay in business as a nonprofit organization rose on Jan. 1 
     from $125,000 a year to $255,000 a year. Sullivan said 
     unemployment insurance rose from 4.9 percent for the first 
     $10,800 each employee makes to 8.2 percent for the first 
     $14,000.
       Coupled with a $63,000 deficit to the Head Start program, 
     which Sullivan said CFC discovered about eight months into 
     the fiscal year, it's devastating news for the anti-poverty 
     organization.
       ``We'll have to shut down Head Start early,'' said 
     Sullivan.
       He said unless there is some other solution, Head Start 
     will close in June, about two weeks early. The program serves 
     410 children in Greater Fall River and Taunton.
       All 110 employees would be laid off. Sullivan said that 
     even this solution will adversely affect CFC because it will 
     have to pay higher rates when employees collect unemployment 
     benefits.
       ``We're being squeezed by every aspect of government,'' 
     said Sullivan.
       But Sullivan said he isn't surprised. After being employed 
     at CFC for 30 years, he said it gets worse every year. 
     There's a constant increase in need and a lack of funding. 
     The newest victims of poverty, according to Sullivan, are the 
     elderly and children.
       Currently, 62 percent of Greater Fall River CFC clients 
     receiving fuel assistance are elderly. He said 34 percent of 
     those eligible for the program have already exhausted their 
     benefits, and it's only mid-January. CFC pays up to $490 per 
     family for heat during the winter season, which runs until 
     April.
       Feeding the hungry has also gotten more difficult. With a 
     cupboard that is almost always bare shortly after being 
     filled, CFC handed out more than 4,000 bags of groceries 
     during the month of December.
       ``We're getting more and more people with less and less 
     money,'' said Sullivan. ``The tragedy of this is (most of) 
     our new clients are elderly.''
       Sullivan condemned the way the government allocates funding 
     and what it views as important. He laughed at the phrase 
     ``jobless recovery'' when it is used to describe an economy 
     that some say is getting better.
       ``How can you have a recovery when people have no jobs?'' 
     asked Sullivan, who is passionate about helping the, needy 
     and angered by what he calls ``double talk'' and unfulfilled 
     promises by government officials.
       ``A budget is the reflection of the morality of a society. 
     It's getting kind of scary what we deem as important,'' said 
     Sullivan.
       With a one-third cut in discretionary spending by the 
     federal government, Sullivan said that what is considered 
     discretionary is what funds core services that help the 
     poor and working poor stay warm and fed.
       ``Discretionary spending is what saves poor people from 
     being destitute,'' said Sullivan.
       The losses and cuts in core poverty programs, along with 
     the increases in rent and prescription drugs, are just too 
     much for many families to handle, according to Sullivan, who 
     admits that he has no solution.
       ``The poor are falling in the cracks and they need a way 
     out,'' said Sullivan. ``I do wish people would start becoming 
     concerned.''
       Sullivan has also seen a decline in charitable donations to 
     CFC and other nonproflt organizations. He said the middle 
     class is the societal section that has always donated the 
     most, but even it is feeling the pinch lately and giving 
     less, if at all.
       ``Those are the people who used to take care of the poor. 
     They're having a hard time taking care of themselves now,'' 
     said Sullivan.

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