On Tuesday, April 17 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors sponsored a briefing on Capitol Hill. The briefing, “The Path Forward on the Affordable Care Act, Child Welfare and Title IV-E Waivers, included remarks by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Congressman Tony Cárdenas (D-CA) and Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA). The event was moderated by
Last week Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018. In their release they indicated that they introduced bipartisan legislation to address the urgent opioid crisis and said the Committee will markup (debate and vote on) the legislation on Tuesday, April 24. The joint statement said
With members returning last week, there was a lack of congressional interest in pursuing a rescission package of cuts to the just-passed 2018 appropriations but the White House appeared to be feeling just the opposite. Reports are that Budget Director—Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Mick Mulvaney is assembling a package of $60 billion
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has updated its deficit projections to conclude that deficits will rise to over $800 billion for this year (ending September 30) to a trillion dollars next year increasing to $1.5 trillion by 2028. The analysis was delayed from January due to Congress’s passage of the December tax package and the
Shaquita Ogletree Last Wednesday, April 11, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on additional legislation to deal with opioids. The legislation, The Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018, has been called by some a second version of the 2016 Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). The Committee released a discussion draft. The focus of
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has released a report, Our Kids, Our Future: Solutions to Child Poverty in the U.S that provides a collection of over 20 papers that provide recommendations to significantly reduce child poverty and improve child well-being. CPAG is made up of more than two dozen national organizations including the Child
The report and briefing came at the end of the week when the President issued another executive order, Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility. This order directs various federal Departments (Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Education) to double-down and toughen work requirements.
On Wednesday, April 11, child care advocates celebrated the biggest increase in child care funding history. The FY 2018 deal enacted last month increased annually appropriated child care funds by $2.3 billion raising the total to $5.2 billion for FY 2018. Advocates heard from long time Capitol Hill champions including Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) the
Shaquita Ogletree On Tuesday, April 10, the Greater Boston Food Bank and Children’s Health Watch hosted a briefing to discuss the financial cost of food insecurity and hunger. Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), co-chair of the Bipartisan Hunger Caucus, has championed the health-related cause of hunger and food insecurity and called for his colleagues to focus
Congress returns this week, but the longest work periods are over for the 115th Congress, making it less likely anything of significance will pass between now and the election. Both houses will take a week off at the start of May, with the Memorial Day and July 4th breaks cutting into the rest of summer