On Tuesday, February 23 the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on the prescription drug to heroin addiction issue. The hearing highlights the continued intense interest within Congress on the issue of heroin and opioids use. With sixteen senators in attendance at one time or another there was a great deal of interest on a
While the Finance Committee was holding a hearing on opioids and heroin, two key senators, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), were introducing a bill to reauthorize the $20 million in funding for Regional Partnership Grants (RPGs) to address substance abuse. The grants have been a part of the Promotion
The Administration is proposing that, as part of the need to reauthorize the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program, (title IV-B part 2) that the set-aside that targets drug treatment be increased from $20 million to $60 million a year. The drug treatment funding was created as part of the 2006 reauthorization of the
More than 35 groups, including CWLA, signed onto a letter circulated by the Foster Family-based Treatment Association (FFTA) calling on Senate leaders to move legislation that would provide emergency financial assistance to address the lead poisoning crisis now confronting Flint, Michigan. Michigan’s senators are attempting to get the money to help address the lead poising
Key child welfare programs including those that are authorized or are a part of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) were all flat funded for 2017. State grants would remain at $25 million a year. Discretionary funding would receive an $11 million boost to $44 million but as just in last year’s budget
On Tuesday, February 2 the American Enterprise Institute and Save the Children cosponsored an event, “Pay for Success: A New Approach to Finding Social Welfare Programs.” The Capitol Hill discussion provided a forum to discuss new strategies to address intractable social problems. Pay for Success or what others call Social Impact Bonds are relatively new
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) are introducing new legislation likely this week, the Excellence in Mental Health Act. The bill that would fully fund 24 states that qualified for a planning grant to create parity between community mental health services and physical health services. The bill is a follow up to
More complete data released by HHS in the awarding of the adoption and kinship incentives for the Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments Program shows that the new structure and new rate formula benefited at least 25 of the states. The awards discussed here last week are based on a phased-in formula that awarded states
On Wednesday, July 23, the House of Representatives passed HR 4980, the “Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act.’ The legislation will reauthorize the Adoption Incentive Fund for three years and extend it to guardianship placements. It will also extend the Family Connections Grants by one year through this current fiscal year of 2014. After