On Wednesday, February 28 the Senate HELP Committee took up and passed The Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act”. The bill, S 1091, has a dozen co-sponsors and is led by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). It establishes a Federal Task Force to Support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. The task force would be directed to identify, promote, coordinate,
Last week the President became the latest President to mark a top priority by declaring war on it. Mr. Trump declared a war on opioids saying, “When confronting a crisis of this magnitude, the most important factor—and one where government too often falls short—is making sure that every dollar is used effectively. To this end,
Congress returns this week for what will be a shortened session but it will be the first opportunity to determine how they will handle three front and center issues: guns, appropriations and DACA They return from their districts for the first time post-Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida shootings. Some will come back from
Funding for the current fiscal year expires on March 23. It is not expected to be a problem as that short term CR was designed to allow appropriators to allocate funding provided under the February 9, 2018 budget deal (PL 115-123). That deal agreed to raise the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) caps for both
A significant first step in the implementation of the Families First Act (read a CWLA description here) will come on October 1, 2018. Under the legislation the Department of Health and Human Services is directed to release the practice criteria required to define prevention services or programs. They are also directed to provide a pre-approved
One of the other issues confronting Congress this week will be what will be the next steps on DACA? There seems to be no path forward for the more than 700,000 DACA-covered young people. The expiration date or the implementation date for the Presidents executive order is March 5, next Monday. The courts, at the
Shortly before the President’s Day break, Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, introduced the Health Insurance for Former Foster Youth Act, HR 4998. The legislation fixes a flaw in the ACA that extends Medicaid coverage to age 26 for any young person who exited foster care. With the Affordable
These are the victims of the Florida school shooting…just like before …as we are reminded by student and classmate David Hogg.
On Monday February 12, the President released his first full fiscal year (FY) 2019 budget. It was released just two days after the Congress had passed and the President signed a budget agreement (PL 115-123) that means many of numbers in the budget are off and well below what was agreed to on the previous
The budget proposes an optional block grant of Title IV-E foster care funding that could be spent for any services now funded under foster care, adoption assistance or Child Welfare Services and Promoting Safe and Stable Families. As pointed out in earlier CWLA analysis, Child Welfare & Block Grants, the 1995 child welfare block grant