Federal Policy Priorities

What We're Advocating for in D.C.

Advocacy is critical to fostering economic mobility and eliminating our country’s enormous racial wealth gap. Informed by feedback from our program participants and staff, EMPath advocates for policies that help families of color, immigrants, and all people meet their basic needs, increase their incomes, and achieve long-term financial stability. For all our federal priorities, EMPath follows the lead of national coalitions.

FEDERAL ADVOCACY PRIORITIES PDF

Housing 

The United States is facing a housing crisis, with nearly 11 million families spending more than half their income on rent. Increased investment in rental assistance, affordable housing production, homelessness prevention and services, and first-time homebuyer programs is crucial to ensure all Americans have access to safe, stable, and affordable homes. These efforts will reduce homelessness, strengthen communities, and drive economic growth by making housing attainable for all. 

EMPath’s Asks: 

  • Expand rental assistance programs to serve more eligible households. Defend existing rental assistance and other targeted housing resources from harmful cuts, including cuts to the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) staffing.   

  • Provide Full funding to renew all existing contracts for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, and funding to expand assistance to 20,000 more households.  

  • Develop more affordable housing for low-income renters.  

Child Care 

American families spend an average of 13% of their income on child care — nearly double the recommended 7% — placing a crushing burden on low-income households. Increased investment in child care assistance will make quality care affordable, allowing parents to work and children to thrive in safe, nurturing environments. Supporting families through accessible child care strengthens the workforce and ensures brighter futures for millions of children. 

EMPath’s Asks: 

Opportunity for Wealth Building 

The median wealth of white families in the U.S. is nearly eight times that of Black families and five times that of Latino families, reflecting deep systemic inequities. Supporting programs like first-time homebuyer assistance, matched savings, baby bonds, and accessible retirement savings will help close gaps, fostering economic security and opportunity for all communities. 

EMPath’s Asks: 

  • Create Matched Savings, Baby Bonds, and other saving programs to help families build wealth and prepare for opportunities and risks. 

  • Provide opportunities for all workers to save for retirement and support low wage workers through incentives such as the Saver's Credit. 

Protect America’s Safety Net 

The federal social safety net provides a large swath of our country’s families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities an essential foundation for survival. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) serves an average of 42.1 million people monthly, with children comprising approximately 40% of recipients. The Medicaid program covers about 72 million people annually.  

Cuts to these and other safety net programs place millions at risk of hunger, poor health, and homelessness. It is also critical to protect the few programs that are available to certain immigrants such as school lunch programs, emergency Medicaid and access to community health centers. Protecting these programs isn’t just about preventing hardship—it’s about ensuring a stable, healthy, and productive society. 

EMPath’s Asks: 

  • Stop measures that reduce access to Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage to people with lawful immigration status or limit state’s ability to create health programs for this population.  

  • Block efforts to reduce the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding or shift SNAP costs to the states. Prevent expanded SNAP work requirements and insure that working SNAP recipients who still require food assistance can receive assistance.