On Thursday, June 26, the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee announced an agreement on legislation to reauthorize the adoption incentives fund, the Family Connections grants, and to provide changes in state requirements regarding youth in foster care. This includes new requirements to screen child victims of sex trafficking. The legislation,
On Thursday, February 27 President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum creating the “My Brother’s Keeper Task Force.” The action will create an interagency effort, chaired by Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, that will determine what public and private efforts are working and how to expand them. The President spoke to the
Last week the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities held its first meeting with all twelve members participating in a vigorous discussion on the issues and challenges before the group. Part of the agenda was allocated to comments by some of the architects of the legislation that created the commission. Staff from the House Ways
Child care will get some special attention this week when the Senate begins debate on a reauthorization (S. 1086) of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), and the President unveils his budget on Tuesday. S. 1086 would be the first reauthorization of CCDBG since the 1996 welfare reform law was adopted. It was
Concern: Congress is dragging their feet to pass the bipartisan Adoption Incentives reauthorization and the Family Connections Grants (which have now expired). The delay has already caused us to lose the funding that was found for the Family Connections Grants to be extended. Action: Call your U.S. Senators and Representative. Call the Capitol switchboard to be connected, dial 202-224-3121. Message: Congress should finish
On Thursday, December 12, the Senate Finance Committee passed the “Supporting At-Risk Children Act of 2013.” The legislation bundled together a reauthorization of the adoption incentives fund, new legislative language to address domestic sex trafficking through child welfare, and provisions that deal with child support collection including provisions to address international treaties. The adoption incentives