On Tuesday, September 19, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced the “Strong Families Act of 2017,” reauthorizing the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV). The legislation was also co-sponsored by Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO), Bob Casey (D-PA), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). It
On Monday, September 18, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released their bill to extend CHIP for five years. The Keeping Kids’ Insurance Dependable and Secure (KIDS) Act (S. 1827), would over time reduce the enhanced match. In releasing the bill, Senator Hatch said, “Introducing this legislation is
Around the same time that the latest repeal of the ACA was gaining traction, Senate leaders lead by Budget Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) indicated that Republican leadership had come to an agreement on a budget resolution for 2018. The budget resolution is significant in that it could clear the way for a fast track
On Wednesday morning and evening, the House Ways and Means Committee debated and passed a re-authorization of the home visiting program. The legislation, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, named the Increasing Opportunity and Success for Children and Parents through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act (H.R. 2824) passed on a party-line vote. Despite
Last week offered a range of possible directions on health care in 2017: move toward a short-term fix of the ACA, repeal it and replace it with block grants or re-ignite the battles over universal care: HELP COMMITTEE ACTION The HELP Committee held two more hearings on Tuesday, September 12, and on Thursday, September 14.
On Wednesday, September 13, the U.S. Census Bureau released new data on poverty and health care coverage for the year 2016. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of children in the U.S. were living in poverty in 2016. While that is a slight improvement over the previous year children continue
On Wednesday, September 6 the Senate HELP Committee began an initial series of four hearings over two weeks. Chairman Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) struck a strong bipartisan note at the beginning of the hearing indicating that he wanted to find a basic quick bipartisan fix for some key issues and have an agreement together
On Wednesday and Thursday of last week the Senate Appropriations Committee acted on their version of an FY 2018 Labor-HHS-Education bill. Now that the Congress has approved (on Friday) a CR that extends all FY 2018 funding until December 8, this bill will serve as a negotiating point with the House and Administration. The bill,
Congress is back and the list of priorities have grown due to Hurricane Harvey. That list may have become easier or more difficult because of the need for more disaster relief. That all remains to be seen. There are currently 12 working days when both houses are in session before the end of September and
For now, the President will permit the latest installment of insurance cost-sharing subsidies through the Affordable Care Act. That is important for now, because the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined there would be significant problems in insurance coverage and significant costs to the federal government if the President pursues his threat to cut off