Budget Summit on Children

Shaquita Ogletree On Thursday, October 4, First Focus hosted their annual event, Children’s Budget Summit to discuss the findings in the Children’s Budget 2018 report. The report captures and analyzes historical funding data and spending trends across a wide range of policy areas including child welfare, early childhood, education, health, housing, income support, nutrition, safety

Congress OKs Appropriations, President Signs

Last week the House of Representatives approved the Defense and Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (HR 6157) by a vote of 361 to 61. The President signed the legislation on Friday afternoon. By doing that he extends funding for the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Education and Labor for the rest of the fiscal year

New Report Details Spending on Children’s Programs In Federal Budget

Last week, First Focus released their Children's Budget for 2018. The annual report analyzes and documents historical funding data and spending trends across a wide range of children’s policy areas including child welfare, early childhood, education, health, housing, income support, nutrition, safety and training tracking federal investments in nearly 200 different programs. Some of the

Administration Reunifies 1800 Families 700 Children Remain

According to numbers released last Friday, of the 2551 children and youth ages five through 17 originally counted as eligible for reunification, 1442 children have been reunified with parents while 378 were placed with guardians or sponsors. But that leaves an additional 700 children still in government shelters. The 700 children remaining in government shelters

House Passes Agriculture Bill Now Confronts Bipartisan Senate Deal

On Thursday, the House approved their farm bill with SNAP/food stamp restrictions by a vote of 213-211, HR 2. The vote was directly tied to the immigration debate as conservatives had sunk the bill last month because of unmet demands on immigration. Estimates are that the House bill will cut SNAP by $19 billion. CWLA

DACA Rebels Skip Discharge Petition, Agree to Two Bill Votes This Week

Republican members of the House of Representatives agreed to drop their drive for a discharge petition to force a vote on four separate immigration bills and instead agreed to a vote on two bills. The moderate Republican members needed just two more votes to reach the 218 signatures. All Democrats had signed onto the petition

House Labor-HHS Appropriations Moves Out of Subcommittee

  On Friday, June 15, the House Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education reported out their bill for FY 2019. The full bill won’t be released until it is considered next week in the full Committee but some items were made public. Overall the Subcommittee is spending the same amount for FY 2019 that was spent and approved

Addressing Early Childhood Poverty

Shaquita Ogletree The U.S. Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), a partnership of national, child-focused organizations—including the Child Welfare League of America—dedicated to cutting child poverty in half within a decade held their first webinar. The presentation was based on a compendium of cross-sector solutions to significantly reduce child poverty in the U.S. CPAG presenters included

Opioids and Infants and Toddlers

Shaquita Ogletree The Congressional Baby Caucus (co-chaired by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)) sponsored a briefing to focus on the drug impact of opioids on that population. Highlighting a recent report in the New York Times, Congresswoman DeLauro said that the solution could not be to tear families apart and punish

Value prop about becoming a member