Last month, when the House of Representatives approved a four-bill appropriations package that included appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services (by a vote of 226-to 203) they included an important improvement for child abuse prevention. The final House appropriation for the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CB-CAP) received a $35 million increase to
With time running short, it is looking more and more likely that the hot topic of July through September will be the FY 2020 budget. That budget debate now involves funding levels for the upcoming FY 2020, FY 2021 budgets as well as raising the debt ceiling. It is now believed that the debt ceiling
On Monday, June 24, Congressperson Bass (D-CA) introduced the Child Welfare Data Modernization Act, HR 3438, which would provide temporary federal funds with a match of 75 percent for states, tribes, and territories child welfare data reporting expenses. Since some states and tribes started updating child welfare AFCARS data systems in 2017, the temporary enhanced
The House of Representatives completed action on the Financial Services bill on Thursday. That makes 10 of 12 bills approved before the July 4th break. The remaining two include the Legislative Branch and Homeland Security. The Legislative Branch is likely to move after the break after stalling on a failed attempt to unfreeze congressional salaries
After a joint meeting on Wednesday, June 19 congressional leaders and the White House were no closer to an overall budget deal than they have been over the last several months. Unlike previous meetings this White House meeting included the Democrats. After the meeting was adjourned there was no deal and no consensus by participants
On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee passed a series of tax bills designed to expand current tax benefits for a number of low and middle income families and individuals. The Economic Mobility Act of 2019, among several provisions, expands the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for childless workers; expands refundability of the child
The House began their debate on a package of four of the twelve appropriations bills on Wednesday. At the same time the Senate was signaling difficulty in starting their process as negotiations between Republican leaders and the White House seemed to slow down. The House bundled four bills together after taking the Legislative Branch bill
On Monday, June 10, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) announced they will introduce the “Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act.” The legislation will modify the current tax credit provided to families that adopt by making it refundable. CWLA has endorsed the bill. In their joint statement Senator Blunt
The House will begin to pass the first of the 12 appropriations bill this week. To speed up the process House Leadership has decided to combine 5 of the 12 FY 2020 bills into one package for debate and vote. The creation of the “mini-bus” will package the Labor-HHS-Education, Defense, Energy-Water, Legislative Branch, and State-Foreign
On Monday, May 20, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2480 – Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) by voice vote and now it heads to the Senate. It proposes robust funding increases for states and local communities to implement strategies and programs that prevents child abuse is critical to strengthen families and