Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee acted on their Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations and sent it on to the Senate floor for future consideration. On the other side of the Capitol Building, the House Appropriations Committee once again delayed action on the Labor-HHS-Education bill reported out by the Subcommittee. Their bill for FY 2019 has been delayed
On Friday, June 22 the House of Representatives passed HR 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act of 2018. That legislation will become a vehicle for a much larger package of legislation that addresses opioids and will eventually be sent to the Senate for action. For child welfare advocates, the bill includes legislation drafted
While the House of Representatives spent time on more than two dozen opioids-related measures this week, the Senate Finance Committee approved their bills that will eventually be combined with other Senate bills that in turn will be a response to a House package. The Senate Finance bill, the Helping to End Addiction and Lessen (HEAL)
If they keep to the agreed to bipartisan schedule, the Senate will clear out all 12 of the appropriations bills this month before they reach the July 4th break. Senators started that process before the Memorial Day break. The Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee will take up its bill the week of June 25. That is the same
The Children’s Bureau has released instructions (ACYF-CB-PI-18-05) on how states can draw down $20 million in FY 2018 Kinship Navigator funds. The $20 million was added as part of the March-approved FY 2018 appropriations bills. It was attached to Title IV-B part 2, Promoting Safe and Stable Families. Unlike the Kinship-Navigator funds (which require programs
The House Ways and Means Committee has released for debate and vote a TANF reauthorization. It is anticipated that the vote will take place this Wednesday. The announcement of the latest bill came last Thursday and would set a vote two weeks after the Human Resources Subcommittee released an initial draft. The bill makes superficial
The House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee held a hearing, “Jobs and Opportunity: Legislative Options to Address the Jobs Gap,” with the purpose to unveil a TANF reauthorization. The reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was a Republican bill but in some respects was not as conservative as some had projected.
On April 26, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a notice of $30 million in Family Unification Program (FUP) vouchers. The announcement combines 2017 funding that had not been released, with additional FY 2018 FUP funding. FUP vouchers are for families that lack of adequate housing and that lack of housing is
The new Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) was working with his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to determine a path forward on 2019 appropriations. Shelby, who took over this month when Senator Thad Cochrane (R-MS) retired due to health issues, wants to move appropriations bills to
Shaquita Ogletree Last Wednesday, April 11, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on additional legislation to deal with opioids. The legislation, The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, has been called by some a second version of the 2016 Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). The Committee released a discussion draft. The focus of