On Tuesday, September 19, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced the “Strong Families Act of 2017,” reauthorizing the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV). The legislation was also co-sponsored by Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Bob Casey (D-PA), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). It
On Wednesday morning and evening, the House Ways and Means Committee debated and passed a re-authorization of the home visiting program. The legislation, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, named the Increasing Opportunity and Success for Children and Parents through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act (H.R. 2824) passed on a party-line vote. Despite
On Thursday, September 14, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act. The new legistaion attempts to set down a strong marker for what is truly needed to make improvements in the nation’s child care and early childhood education systems across the fifty states. It would
The House Ways and Means Committee may meet this Wednesday to mark up a bill to reauthorize the home visiting program. Two House bills have been introduced to extend the Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program which runs out on September 30. The Republican bill (The Increasing Opportunity through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act)
On Wednesday and Thursday of last week the Senate Appropriations Committee acted on their version of an FY 2018 Labor-HHS-Education bill. Now that the Congress has approved (on Friday) a CR that extends all FY 2018 funding until December 8, this bill will serve as a negotiating point with the House and Administration. The bill,
Child Welfare Services (Title IV-B part 1) and Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF, Title IV-B part 2) expired last year and they have a temporary extension through the end of this fiscal year. As a result of this most recent CR current funding including the court funds will continue for now. The Court Improvement
Last week the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) released a new report, The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014: Uneven State Implementation of Key Policies. The report follows and analysis how states have attempted to implement new requirements under the federal child care programs. The NWLC report examines policy changes in four
The President is expected to announce his decision on the fata of "DACA" sometime today. In June, Homeland Security announced what appeared to be an extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Later the Administration said they had not made a final decision on DACA but wanted to clarify their policy in another
The Senate cut short their extended work schedule on Thursday when they finished work on several nominations including some from HHS. They will be out until after Labor Day. When Congress returns in September they will have a long list of items many that must be addressed by the end of the month or at
Last week Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) announced the introduction of a second House bill to reauthorize the home visiting program. The HomeVisiting Works Act of 2017 would extend the program for an additional five years and, similar to the goals of the Home Visiting Coalition, it would gradually increase funding to $800 million in year