During the State of the Union Address, President Biden took the opportunity to address the debt ceiling negotiations, noting that there had been proposals to make cuts to Medicare and Social Security spending. Republicans vehemently and loudly denied such plans, and in one of the few bipartisan moments of the night, both parties seemed to
On Wednesday, February 15th, First Focus on Children and The Education Trust hosted a webinar to educate on struggles that may arise with the reauthorization of the FARM Bill this year. Katie Bergh, Senior Policy Analyst for the Food Assistance Team at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, spoke about her previous experience with
On February 2, 2023, the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) published a comprehensive resource that summarizes fiscal year (FY) 2023 funding for key federal programs related to substance use disorders (SUD). The resource includes a chart that tracks funding of programs under the authority of the Department of Health and
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) recently released a fact sheet that estimates the increased funding that each state will receive in the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in 2023. CCDBG received a $1.9B increase in the 2023 Consolidated Appropriation Act, a 30% increase to its total funding. CCDBG is a
The Urban Institute released “Four Ways to Better Support Young Adults Transitioning out of Foster Care” on January 26, 2023. The article examines the intent and outcomes of the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood, known as Chafee, which was signed into law in 1999 and provides support to assist
On Thursday, January 19th, 2023, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen announced that the United States had officially reached its debt limit and that the Treasury Department is deploying “extraordinary measures” — in this case, suspending investments in government retirement funds — to avoid defaulting. In a letter to Congressional leaders, Secretary Yellen urged Congress
On January 10th, 2023, New America announced updated and improved state paid leave briefs as well as information on wages, benefit caps, and payroll contributions for the coming year. The announcement offered resources that discussed the federal FMLA and the State Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs as well as information on duration and utilization
This past Congress has certainly had its challenges. Throughout the last Congress, CWLA has joined with national stakeholders and coalitions to increase funding levels across 44 separate funding programs – many of which received an increase in the spending omnibus, and some remained at level funding. While a notable disappointment was the failure to reauthorize
Last week, Congress continued to forge ahead on negotiating an Appropriations deal. Democrats and Republicans reached a topline spending agreement for a fiscal 2023 omnibus, three of the four top appropriators on Capitol Hill said late Tuesday, December 13th, 2022. Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said in a statement that negotiators had "reached a
The Continuing Resolution (CR) that Congress passed in September to avoid a government shutdown is set to expire this Friday, December 16th, 2022, and no Appropriations deal has been reached at this time. This week will be critical in determining if the twelve Appropriations bills will get done, or if another CR will be necessary.