FEDERAL PRIORITIES
Valley of the Sun United Way is pushing for policy that enhances the lives of all Americans.
housing and homelessness priorities
Goal: Ensure all can have a safe home to call their own.
Focus: Maintaining safe and stable housing through various prevention, wraparound, and rehousing services, expanding and strengthening programs that address homelessness, broader housing options, and housing affordability, including housing tax credits.
1. Monitor HUD funding for homelessness programs and protect funding for permanent supportive housing.
2. Monitor ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 (Senator Gallego).
3. Monitor and protect the allocation of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and weatherization program funding for Arizona.
4. Monitor the Preventing Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program Act (PYHDP).
education priorities
Goal: Ensure all families have quality education options through sustained funding and effective policies that close gaps in access, quality, and outcomes.
Focus: Close opportunity gaps to ensure children read at grade level by 3rd grade and youth are prepared for educational success and employment.
1. Sustain federal investment in proven programs such as Early Head Start.
2. Ensure all children and students have access to educational opportunities that set them up for long-term success by informing and engaging the Arizona delegation.
health priorities
Goal: Remove barriers to ensure everyone in our community is healthy, with a focus on access to food and health care.
Focus: Help people overcome barriers to good health by improving access to nutritious food and quality health education and services, including preventative care.
1. Protect accessibility and affordability of healthcare coverage and maintain Medicare and Medicaid services to support low-income Arizonans.
2. Protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
workforce development priorities
Goal: Open pathways to better-paying jobs.
Focus: Advocate for policies that help individuals increase preparation for a living wage job and achievement of higher paying employment with a focus on education, skills training, and supportive services that help individuals overcome obstacles.
1. Monitor and analyze federal policy changes introduced through the FY26 Budget Proposal and the OBBBA reconciliation package, with a focus on their impact on workforce development, education access, and basic needs programs.
2. Protect the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit to provide ongoing income support to struggling families and help build thriving communities.
Nonprofit and Community Strengthening
1. Protect funding for and accessibility to equitable disaster response programs including bolstering support for disaster preparedness and mitigation programs.
2. Support favorable taxation policy and the philanthropic infrastructure necessary for a robust nonprofit/social service sector
Other priorities
County priorities
Our county policy priorities aim to enhance the lives of Maricopa County residents.
STATE PRIORITIES
Our state policy priorities offer a range of solutions aimed at improving the lives of Arizonians.
For more information, please contact:
Beatrice “Bea” Rocklin
(602) 499-8600
Bea@beaspoken.com
