On Tuesday, September 23, a number of panelists addressed a Capitol Hill crowd on, One Year after Maria: How Children in Puerto Rico are Faring One Year After. The discussion highlighted how Hurricane Maria, one year ago, aggravated what was already a difficult situation for Puerto Rico’s children and families. A panel of experts described
The Senate ended last week’s session early due to the delayed committee vote on the Supreme Court vacancy, but before they departed on Tuesday they gave final approval of a Defense and Labor-HHS-Education appropriations package. The now-Senate approved two-bill package includes a continuing resolution (CR) for the rest of the appropriations that don’t get approved
Last Thursday, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources posted a transcript of the July 24, hearing update on implementation of the Family First Act along with a joint letter highlighting a few key questions and answers on implementation. The letter, is signed by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee Congressman
A new report by the HHS Inspector General (IG), released last week, Treatment Planning and Medication Monitoring Were Lacking for Children in Foster Care Receiving Psychotropic Medication was critical of health care services and treatment of children in foster care as it relates to the use of psychotropic medication. The report by the in-house investigator
Negotiations continued last week on the farm bill with the houses divided. Its possible Congress could delay a final deal until a post-election “lame-duck” session. (Lame duck because several legislators will be at the end of their terms due to retirement or defeat and will be consider lame in power due to their inability to
Cutting their week short due to the hurricane, the Senate gave final approval to a Military Construction and Veterans -Energy and Water--Legislative Branch FY 19 spending package sending it back to the House for a final approval. The bill goes to the White House for signature and marks the first FY 2019 bills enacted before
Last week Congress continued on a path that would allow some appropriations bills to be signed into law by October 1, the start of the fiscal year. Last week Republican leadership met with the President, appointed some House-Senate conferees and continued to negotiate. All of this was done with the President sending some mixed messages.
On Friday, September 7, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a federal register notice that proposes, through the regulation process, to amend a court agreement relating to the apprehension, processing, care, custody, and release of children detained at the U.S. border. The notice, Apprehension, Processing,
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) hosted a Capitol Hill briefing featuring immigration and education experts to discuss the impact of the Administration’s efforts rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has had on students and teachers over the past year. DACA was created under President Obama in 2012 and on September
A House-Senate Conference Agriculture Committee was meeting last week to negotiate differences between the two Agriculture reauthorization bills. Agriculture bills today focus mainly on nutrition programs as well as farm support programs. The House bill approved their farm bill with SNAP/food stamp restrictions by a vote of 213-211, HR 2. Unlike the Senate bill, the