The agreed to legislation on opioids (see below), HR 6, fixes a glitch in the ACA that mandates that any young person that ages out of foster care is covered by Medicaid to age 26. Through the work of Congressperson Karen Bass (D-CA), the provision was included in the House version of the opioids legislation
CWLA joined a number of groups including American Unity Fund, Family Equality Council, FosterClub, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, National Association of Social Workers, PFLAG National and Voice for Adoption to sponsor a Senate and a House briefing, How Discrimination in Foster Care Harms Foster Youth. The two briefing included remarks by Ernesto Olivares, San
The House and Senate agreed to the Substance Use–Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act’’ or the ‘‘SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act’’ or HR 6. The House has passed the bill and left town until November. The Senate is expected to take up the bill this week. In
The Senate ended last week’s session early due to the delayed committee vote on the Supreme Court vacancy, but before they departed on Tuesday they gave final approval of a Defense and Labor-HHS-Education appropriations package. The now-Senate approved two-bill package includes a continuing resolution (CR) for the rest of the appropriations that don’t get approved
Last week, First Focus released their Children's Budget for 2018. The annual report analyzes and documents historical funding data and spending trends across a wide range of children’s policy areas including child welfare, early childhood, education, health, housing, income support, nutrition, safety and training tracking federal investments in nearly 200 different programs. Some of the
The Senate voted on their opioids legislation on Tuesday, September 18 and passed it by a vote of 99 to 1 (Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)-no). Immediately they began negotiations on the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, with their House counterparts. The hope is that they can get a quick deal and pass it before
Cutting their week short due to the hurricane, the Senate gave final approval to a Military Construction and Veterans -Energy and Water--Legislative Branch FY 19 spending package sending it back to the House for a final approval. The bill goes to the White House for signature and marks the first FY 2019 bills enacted before
Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) is promoting one-time funding that can assist social workers seeking education loan forgiveness. The temporary funding acts as a patch for some who qualify for loan forgiveness under a ten-year plan that covers some workers (including social workers working within child welfare) if they have paid on their loans over the
The Senate delayed a vote on an opioids package of legislation until this week. The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, addresses a range of programs and agencies, sometimes building on 2016 Congressional action though the CARA and CURES acts of that year. Senators had intended to debate the bill on Thursday but put off
Last Monday and Thursday the House Ways and Means Committee acted on a second package of tax cuts. The bills were introduced on Tuesday and passed in Committee on Thursday. Committee Chairman, Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) announced the unveiling of “Tax Reform 2.0.” The package includes three bills: H.R. 6760, H.R. 6757 and H.R. 6756.