On Tuesday, February 23 the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on the prescription drug to heroin addiction issue. The hearing highlights the continued intense interest within Congress on the issue of heroin and opioids use. With sixteen senators in attendance at one time or another there was a great deal of interest on a
Last week the budget struggles continued at least in the House of Representatives where they've decided to delay any markup on the budget resolution in the budget committee. There were indications and public comments by the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Congressman Tom Price that they had reached an agreement with more conservative elements of
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) five-year reauthorization ran out in FY 2010 and has been extended through a series of short term extensions ranging from a few months to a year at a time. In this year’s budget, for the first time, the Administration proposes several changes and enhancements. There appears to be
Last October, when HHS awarded the annual adoption incentives, now renamed the Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments Program, the awards were much less than the fifty states had earned. The awards now based on adoptions and kinship placement increases that took place in federal fiscal year 2014 (FY ’14) were funded from FY 2015.
The Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) is a combination of funding streams for different but related services. Like Title IV-B part 1, Child Welfare Services (CWS), PSSF was reauthorized in 2014 as part of the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act. In FY 2017, the President is requesting PSSF funding at the
President Obama released his final budget for fiscal year 2017 last Tuesday. While the politics of this year and the President’s lame-duck status makes this a difficult budget to adopt there are some key proposals that can build on a vision for reforms and changes for child welfare. It also offers the potential for some
The Administration included in the budget a new strategy to expand and strengthen the child welfare workforce. The budget request would amend Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance law to expand state access to current training funds. Currently states can receive a 75 percent match on state dollars spent on worker training. This funding,
The Administration is proposing that, as part of the need to reauthorize the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program, (title IV-B part 2) that the set-aside that targets drug treatment be increased from $20 million to $60 million a year. The drug treatment funding was created as part of the 2006 reauthorization of the
Key child welfare programs including those that are authorized or are a part of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) were all flat funded for 2017. State grants would remain at $25 million a year. Discretionary funding would receive an $11 million boost to $44 million but as just in last year’s budget
The Administration carries over earlier child welfare reform measures submitted in the past few years. These include an ACF-CMS Demonstration Projects to address over use of Psychotropic Medication in the treatment of foster children. The proposal envisions for each of the next five years, $50 million a year through ACF matched by $100 million a