On Tuesday June 7 and Thursday June 9, the Senate Appropriations moved a Labor-HHS-Education bill through Subcommittee and full Committee respectively. Leadership from both sides proclaimed a bipartisan victory of what was passed with little controversy. The big winner, if there can be in tight budgets, is the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which received
With Congress returning and approximately 27 to 24 potential days in session for the House and Senate before their summer break, appropriations bills are likely to be the prime focus. That leaves little space for addressing the Families first draft legislation unless there is some strong consensus between the two houses. There are also some
Last week hundreds of researchers gathered in Washington for what is now a biennial event to discuss issues related to the TANF block grant. The event, Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) provided two and a half days of discussion around assistance to TANF families, education and training, youth development, immigrant families and child
After the GAO report was released Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member on HELP Committee, sent a letter urging the Department of Education to address obstacles unaccompanied homeless students face in applying for and receiving financial aid. The Senator asked the Department to exclude burdensome parental information requirements and to clarify the definition of
The resource kit released by the Education Department follows a report by the GAO earlier this month, Actions Needed to Improve Access to Federal Financial Assistance for Homeless and Foster Youth (GAO-16-343: May 19, 2016) that program rules can make it more difficult for unaccompanied homeless youth (those not in the physical custody of a
On Monday, May 23 as part of the ongoing efforts to talk about foster care for Foster Care Month, Youth Villages and the American Youth Policy Forum sponsored a briefing, Scaling Up active practices for youth transitioning out of foster care". UVLifeSet is a program started originally 1999 by Youth Villages. The goal of the
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee, as part of National Foster Care Month held a hearing, Supporting Youth in the Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Systems. In opening the hearing Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) said that he hoped the hearing would result in some new information and strategies to better coordinate services between the child
On Wednesday, May 17, Mathematica, a policy research think tank, hosted a National Foster Care Month briefing, Welfare Through Prevention: An Evidence-Based Perspective. The presentation including remarks by Kimberly Boller, Mathematica, Matthew Stagner, Mathematica, Becky Shipp, (Senator Orrin Hatch, R-UT), and Laura Berntsen, (Senator Ron Wyden, D-OR). Much of the discussion focused on the draft
On Wednesday, May 17 the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources held their own hearing on the substance-abuse issue and the relationship to child welfare. It follows last week’s Senate Finance Committee hearing on the use of evidence-based services and its relationship to child welfare. In his opening statement, the Chairman, Congressman Vern
On Wednesday, May 11, the House of Representatives passed the Infant Plan of Safe Care Improvement Act, H.R. 4843, by a vote of 421 to zero. Late last year a Reuters investigation examined the care for infants born to parents struggling with opioid and heroin addiction. It caught the attention of Congress especially the parts