On Tuesday, March 9, 2021, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions held a hearing entitled “Examining Our COVID-19 Response: An Update from the Frontlines.” Chairwoman Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) highlighted over half a million lives lost and 29 million infected across the country. She also discussed the impact the pandemic is
On Wednesday, March 10, 2021, Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced the Child Poverty Reduction Act (H.R. 1588/ S. 643), which commits to cutting child poverty in half in 10 years, just as the pandemic pushes child poverty toward record levels. The legislation also creates national, evidence-based benchmarks and monitoring
On Thursday, March 11, 2021, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies held a hearing to discuss COVID-19 and the mental health and substance use crisis. Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) opened with remarks about the pandemic and how it has increased anxiety and depression, worsened mental health,
After an initial delaying tactic by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WS) that called for a reading of the bill throughout Thursday, the Senate moved on the American Rescue Plan on Friday morning. A CWLA description of the still-changing package can be found here. Earlier in the week, the Senate Democratic leadership was negotiating various alterations from the
Fostering Families Today and the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) hosted a webinar on Thursday, March 4, to discuss recent findings from a survey they conducted. This survey was created to discover how foster families are coping through the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 300 foster parents in the U.S. were surveyed during January and February 2021,
On Monday, March 1, 2021, the ABA Center on Children and the Law, Casey Family Programs, Children’s Defense Fund, and Generations United hosted a webinar presenting a new tool that lays out the necessary steps for effective implementation of the kinship provisions under the Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First Act) which includes kinship
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) hosted an event on child allowances, presenting an array of arguments for and against, including conversations on welfare reform. The Biden Administration, House Democrats, and Republican Senator Mitt Romney have child allowance proposals that address child poverty in America with different measures. Senator Romney (R-UT)
Senate Democrats are hopeful they can complete action on the COVID-19 relief/reconciliation legislation sometime late this week. The goal is to have a package on the President’s desk before extended unemployment runs out on March 14, 2021. There was a major setback for advancing a minimum wage increase as part of the package on
On Monday, February 22, 2021, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) awarded the $344 million in additional Chafee program awards to states and participating territories and tribes. Attached is an allotment table showing the amount of the awards. The additional ETV awards and other supplemental grants have not yet been released but will be
On Thursday, February 24, 2021, the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services announced JooYeun Chang's appointment as the acting assistant secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary for the Biden Administration. Before this role, JooYeun served as the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services' Children's Services Agency