On October 4, a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Brackeen V Zinke, Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is unconstitutional in its entirety based on the Equal Protection Clause and the 14th Amendment. The judge wrote that ICWA’s racial classification of children has
Shaquita Ogleetree On October 15, the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities co-hosted a forum to explore work requirements and the role of anti-poverty programs. The Hamilton Project released its economic analysis report on how work requirements in Medicaid and SNAP affect the goals of a social safety
In between the fight over the Supreme Court, the Senate passed a few bills that the House had sent over before they exited Washington the week before. The House has adjourned until November 13, 2018. The Senate may remain around as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) calculates both the political advantage of keeping senators
On Wednesday, October 3, a new report was released, Evaluating State Mental Health and Addiction Parity Statutes: A Technical Report, ranking the fifty states A through F on whether or not they are providing parity access to mental health and substance abuse treatment consistent with the federal law. That law generally requires health insurers to
The Senate approved the Substance Use–Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act’’ or the ‘‘SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act’’ or HR 6 on Wednesday, October 3 by a vote of 98 to one. The lone vote was by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) not
Shaquita Ogletree On Monday, October 1, the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth held a congressional briefing to discuss the Every Student Success Act (ESSA) and School Stability for Foster Youth. According to the most recent report from AFCARS, there were over 260,000 school-aged children in foster care, some of the nation’s most educationally disadvantaged students.
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
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
On Tuesday, September 23, a number of panelists addressed a Capitol Hill crowd on, One Year after Maria: How Children in Puerto Rico are Faring One Year After. The discussion highlighted how Hurricane Maria, one year ago, aggravated what was already a difficult situation for Puerto Rico’s children and families. A panel of experts described
The agreed to legislation on opioids (see below), HR 6, fixes a glitch in the ACA that mandates that any young person that ages out of foster care is covered by Medicaid to age 26. Through the work of Congressperson Karen Bass (D-CA), the provision was included in the House version of the opioids legislation