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Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security

Joan Entmacher

Joan Entmacher is Vice President for Family Economic Security at the National Women's Law Center, where she leads a team working to improve policies important to the economic security of low-income women and their families, including tax and budget, child care, child support, unemployment insurance, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and Social Security. Ms. Entmacher is a leading expert on issues affecting low-income women. She has been invited to testify before Congress on several occasions, written numerous analyses and reports on income support policies and their impact on poor women, and spoken frequently at conferences, briefings, and to the media. Prior to joining the National Women's Law Center, Ms. Entmacher served as Director of Legal and Public Policy at the National Partnership for Women & Families, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, Chief of the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, and attorney in the U.S. Department of Labor Solicitor's Office. Ms. Entmacher is a graduate of Yale Law School and Wellesley College.

My Take

Aren’t 49 million hungry Americans enough?

Posted by | Posted on: October 03, 2011 at 02:10 pm

Most of the work of the congressional super-committee (officially, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction) is going on behind closed doors – but reports are leaking out. And the word is that some members of the super-committee are targeting programs for low-income people for cuts. Today’s post focuses on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) – but Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, Medicare, and other vital programs are also threatened, and we’ll have more to say about them as the committee continues its work.

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More Women are in Poverty Than Ever – Tell Congress to Act on President's Jobs Plan

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: September 15, 2011 at 10:01 am

Trust me: it's no fun being the bearer of bad news.

I recently told you that since the recession officially ended, women's unemployment rates have actually increased. But that's not the only grim reality: today the Census Bureau released new data, and NWLC's analysis finds that record numbers of women are living in poverty — and extreme poverty.

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How We’re Celebrating Women’s Equality Day

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: August 25, 2011 at 09:36 am

Women’s Equality Day, marking the anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, is this Friday. The long and continuing fight for women’s rights has produced real gains – but women still have a long way to go, and many of the key laws that have improved women’s health and economic security are under attack.

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Norquist: Senator Patty Murray “doesn’t do budgets”

Posted by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security | Posted on: August 19, 2011 at 05:37 pm

So Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and author of the no-tax-increases-ever-on-anybody-for-any-reason-pledge thinks Senator Patty Murray of Washington State (“the lady from Washington”), co-chair of the new congressional super-committee charged with developing a deficit reduction plan over the next few months, “doesn’t do budgets”.

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Standing Up for Medicare and Medicaid Is Oh So Proper for Ladies (and Gentlemen)

On Tuesday, the House debated and voted on the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act,” a bill which would slash Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and much more.

After several hours of debate, the bill passed on a largely party-line vote.  Not much of a surprise there. The real surprise came later.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL), who spoke in support of the bill, sent an email to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), calling her "vile, unprofessional, and despicable," "a coward," "characterless," and "not a Lady," and demanding that she "shut the heck up" after remarks she made in opposition to the bill.

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