On Wednesday, June 7, the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, along with Florida-based Camelot Community Care, hosted a discussion, REAL kids, REAL voices, REAL time – Roundtable Discussion by Youth in Foster Care. The discussion focused on the experiences of nine young people in foster care. The hour-long dialogue included question and answers by Tavyla
Congress has started to step up their hearing process for appropriations with several committees and subcommittees, holding preliminary reviews and testimony from Administration officials. Concurrently, there has been no more clarity on the debt ceiling front except for the fact that the Administration reaffirmed the need to raise it before the August break. The Democrats
The Urban Institute has released a new analysis of the TANF block grant, Why Does Cash Welfare Depend on Where You Live? The report emphasizes that only a small share of families living in poverty receive cash assistance, and that that share has fallen dramatically in the last 20 years. That is a reaffirmation of
Last week, the American Youth Policy Forum unveiled a new web-based resource center called Understanding Foster, Juvenile Justice, and Crossover Youth. The site is part of an effort to educate policy-makers on the needs of foster care, juvenile justice, and crossover youth. The hope is that it will serve as a quick, easy-to-read overview of
After the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued the new assessment of the American Health Care Act that showed that the amendments made to the original bill costs $32 billion more and it will reduced the number of uninsured under the original bill by only 1 million people, conversations were continuing on a Senate bill. Now
There are dozens of federal programs that need reauthorization and are not likely to get extended, at least not in this year. Some reauthorizations ran out years ago but they can still receive funding through the appropriations process. This includes the Higher Education Act, Head Start, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) which
The Administration released their full 2018 budget on Tuesday, May 23, titled A New Foundation for American Greatness. The good news is that they do not propose converting Title IV-E into a block grant and most of the core discretionary funding for specific child welfare programs is at the same level as 2017. The bad
On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued the new assessment of the American Health Care Act. It showed that the amendments made to the original bill costs $32 billion more and it reduced the number of uninsured under the original bill by only 1 million people. The key points are that it saves $119
As noted both SSBG and TANF are targeted as major revenue raisers through the elimination of SSBG and a cut of $1.7 billion to TANF. There is a letter of support of SSBG that includes supporters at the national, state and local level. That letter is open for more sign-ons in support right here.
The President's new budget endorses both the reauthorization of the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) but in both cases the budget falls short. The Administration proposes just a two-year extension of MIECHV and at the same level of $400 million as it receives now.