On Tuesday, March 31, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urged the Trump Administration to provide guidance to child welfare agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. The letter was addressed to Vice President Mike Pence and the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) Commission Elizabeth Darling urging for immediate relief for youth, support
On Tuesday, March 31, FosterClub announced the #UPChafee Challenge to bring awareness to the importance of an increase in support for foster youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure the message is heard, FosterClub asked young people with lived experience in foster care to contact their Members of Congress and share why it is so
HR 748, the third COVID-19 emergency spending legislation, includes some human services and state relief, but the targeted human services funding did not go as far as many groups had been seeking. The biggest source of support is a $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund that governors had been pushing for, but it is not as
The President had requested $2.5 billion for coronavirus on February 24, and Congress instead sent him a package of $8.3 billion on March 5, which was followed by last week’s bill that tops $100 billion. This third package looks likely to exceed $1 trillion. On Thursday, the Administration released an emergency package that includes a
The Child and Family Service Agencies (CFSA) in Washington, D.C. has made changes to services in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. While the government agency is still providing services, the front-line staff and supervisors of Program Operations are under partial telework status. While the building is closed to the public, supervisors are still required to
After several days of back and forth, the House of Representatives passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, HR 6201, on Friday night. The House vote was 363 to 40. The Senate left on Thursday but is expected to take the legislation up this week after canceling their one week break. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
On Monday, March 2, 2020, the Supreme Court announced it will take up a case that could ultimately strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), that is what its opponents are hoping. It also means that the Court in the fall of 2020 will have several highly controversial cases to consider (along with the previous
On Wednesday, February 26, The Hill hosted “America’s Opioid Epidemic: Lessons Learned & A Way Forward” sponsored by Indivior, a pharmaceutical company. According to a 2019 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 70,237 drug overdose deaths, and 47,600 of those deaths involved an opioid, which is a 9.6% increase since
Building on their Thursday, January 30, 2020, their Medicaid Healthy Adult Opportunity waiver proposal, the Administration proposes cuts to Medicaid of $920 billion over the next ten years. The reductions are the result of various restrictions, new requirements (such as work), and various block grant options, as evidenced by January waiver notice to states. Both
On Thursday, February 6, 2020, the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, held a hearing entitled A Threat to America’s Children: The Trump Administration’s Proposed Changes to Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Five witnesses gave testimony: Lisa Davis, Senior Vice President of the No Kid Hungry Campaign, Zach Pethan, Principal of