On December 14th, 2022, with only a handful of days left in the 117th Congress, Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) introduced the Parental Right to Protect Act, which would introduce gender-affirming care issues into the Child Abuse Protection and Treatment Act (CAPTA). The bill seeks to make states ineligible for CAPTA funding if they allow Child
On December 15th, the Trevor Project released the 2022 U.S. National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health. For the first time, the report presents findings on the experiences of nearly 34,000 LGBTQ people ages 13-24 in the U.S., segmented by all 50 states. From the summary: “These data provide critical insights into the suicide risk
The National Women’s Law Center released a new report on December 15th, 2022: State Child Care and Early Education Updates 2022: Progress on a Long Path. The report provides state-by-state summaries highlighting key actions taken by states in the past year to expand access to affordable, high-quality child care and early education opportunities and to
On December 20th, 2022, NPR’s Fresh Air hosted the New York Times' Matt Richtel to talk about the current mental health crisis among teenagers in the United States. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide among adolescents have risen sharply in recent years. Richtel spent nearly two years reporting on the crisis — speaking with
Last week, Congress continued to forge ahead on negotiating an Appropriations deal. Democrats and Republicans reached a topline spending agreement for a fiscal 2023 omnibus, three of the four top appropriators on Capitol Hill said late Tuesday, December 13th, 2022. Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said in a statement that negotiators had "reached a
On Thursday, December 14th, the Children’s Bureau announced new program ratings in the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse. Five new programs were found to meet the standards for inclusion among the evidence-based programs that can be utilized under the Family First Prevention Services Act. One new program was categorized as “Well-Supported,” the highest rating in
On Tuesday, December 13th, 2022, President Biden signed bipartisan legislation to safeguard marriage equality after Congress approved federal protections for same-sex marriage. The Respect for Marriage Act repeals the 1996 law known as the Defense of Marriage Act that the Supreme Court found to be largely unconstitutional in a 2013 decision and includes some religious
On Wednesday, December 13th, 2022, Representatives Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) and Danny Davis (D-IL), Chair of the Worker and Family Support Subcommittee on Ways and Means, introduced the Fostering Secure Family Partnerships Act, a bill to increase federal funding for state Kinship Navigator Programs — which provide caregivers with information, education, and referrals to a wide
The Continuing Resolution (CR) that Congress passed in September to avoid a government shutdown is set to expire this Friday, December 16th, 2022, and no Appropriations deal has been reached at this time. This week will be critical in determining if the twelve Appropriations bills will get done, or if another CR will be necessary.
The House of Representatives passed the amended Respect for Marriage Act on Thursday, December 8th, 2022, in a 258-169-1 vote. Thirty-nine Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure, which had previously been passed in the House in July of this year. The bill now awaits President Biden’s signature, which is likely to happen in