The Biden Administration will release its first full budget on Thursday, May 27, 2021. The release of the budget fills in the blanks from the broad overview the Administration released on April 9. That document included the allocation between domestic (non-defense) spending at $769 billion and defense spending at $753 billion. That amounts to a
On May 12, 2021, the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support held a hearing on "Making a Difference for Families and Foster Youth." The hearing was intended as a review of potential updates and changes to the two Title IV-B programs for reauthorization later this year. CWLA submitted testimony for the record
On Monday, May 17, 2021, the US Department of Treasury (along with the Internal Revenue Service/IRS) announced that the first installment of the expanded CTC would start on July 15, 2021. Treasury also announced that 88 percent of families would automatically receive the monthly payment. Approximately 39 million households will be covered and that translates
The Ways and Means Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support held a hearing on "Making a Difference for Families and Foster Youth." The hearing was intended as a review of potential updates and changes to the two Title IV-B programs for reauthorization later this year. The witnesses included William Bell, President and CEO, Casey
There are two child welfare programs created under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act. Despite the call for flexible funding through child welfare, these two programs have been around for decades and provide very flexible child welfare funding, although neither program has had strong support and, in fact, been continuously cut since 2005.
There are three key points for CWLA members this week: Make the Child Tax Credit Permanent which would make the CTC fully refundable, even for low-income families. The Child Tax Credit is on track to be delivered monthly, starting in July 2021, by the IRS. Making the CTC permanent can lift more children above the poverty line
Before President Biden’s signed the American Rescue Plan, 27 million children did not receive the child tax credit as a result of low parental income. During the pandemic, child poverty reached an estimated high of 21.4% in August 2020 – up from 18.7% pre-pandemic. The National Academies of Sciences found that child poverty itself costs
The COVID-19 pandemic just exacerbated the child care industry, which is vital for working parents. The child care industry has historically been underfunded and outrageously expensive for most American families and making access to quality care unattainable for more than 2 million parents a year. The Center for American Progress estimates that more than
Aysha Schomburg, Associate Commissioner for the Children’s Bureau, helped to open CWLA’s successful 2021 virtual conference on Tuesday, May 4, 2021. In her opening remarks to CWLA attendees, she discussed her experiences over the past year during the pandemic and some of the lessons learned. At the time, Commissioner Schomburg was working at New York
Last month the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data that indicates that drug overdoses in this country reached an all-time high of 90,000 in the 12 month period that ended on September 30, 2020. The numbers represent a stark increase after the already high numbers seemed to stabilize between 2017 through 2019 at between