On Thursday, March 7, four key congressional leaders on child welfare asked HHS Secretary Alex Azar to increase the HHS efforts on the implementation of the Family First Act. The letter signed by Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ways and Means Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support
Today, the President will release a part of his FY 2020 budget. The budget is scheduled for the first week of February but due to the government shutdown it was delayed. Today’s unveiling will be only part of the Administration’s proposal. It is expected that the Administration will propose a five percent cut in
Child Care For Working Families Act On Tuesday, February 26, Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) along with his Senate counterpart, Senator Patty Murray introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act. The House version is HR 1364 and the Senate bill is S 586. HR 1364 begins with 106 House co-sponsors while the Senate bill has
Kylie Hunter The Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday, March 6, held a hearing, The Way Forward on Border Security. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kirstjen Nielsen was the main witness. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) opened with remarks observing that since the last time the Committee met was a year
Jay Williams While one committee was hearing from the Secretary of Homeland Security last week, the House Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on Protecting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Recipients. The witness panel included Jim Park - Rhodes Scholar, DACA Recipient, Yatta Kiazolu, UCLA Ph.D. Candidate, DED Recipient,
Tessa Buttram On Thursday, March 7, the House Ways and Means Worker and Family Support Subcommittee held a hearing entitled, Leveling the Playing Field for Working Families: Challenges and Opportunities. Chairman Danny Davis (D-IL) opened the hearing saying that “Lack of affordable child care and paid leave are not “some of us” problems but
On Thursday, February 28, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS) released the results of their nearly two year study on reducing child poverty in the United States, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. CWLA President & CEO Chris James-Brown was one of the 15 member committee that studied the issue and wrote
A reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) could move early this spring. Behind the scenes the key committees in the House and Senate have been working and discussing potential changes. The key committees are the House Education and Labor Committee and the Senate HELP Committee. Although Congress has added to
Shaquita Ogletree The State of Babies Yearbook (The Yearbook), an initiative of the Think Babies campaign, created by Zero to Three and Child Trends is a tool that shows the well-being of babies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The data illuminate the fact that what state a baby is born in
Two House Committees: the Oversite Committee and the Judiciary Committee held hearings last week on family separation at the border. As part of those hearings there were reports that a significant number of children have been subjected to child sexual abuse while being cared for as unaccompanied minors. Figures released indicated that HHS has received