Last week offered a range of possible directions on health care in 2017: move toward a short-term fix of the ACA, repeal it and replace it with block grants or re-ignite the battles over universal care: HELP COMMITTEE ACTION The HELP Committee held two more hearings on Tuesday, September 12, and on Thursday, September 14.
On Wednesday, September 13, the President and Democratic leaders appeared to line up on a deal that would restore protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) children and youth. The initial description indicated the DACA protections would go hand and hand with greater security funding but no wall against Mexico funding. Within hours however
On Thursday, September 14, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act. The new legistaion attempts to set down a strong marker for what is truly needed to make improvements in the nation’s child care and early childhood education systems across the fifty states. It would
Last weeks’ presidential-congressional agreement on a December 8, extension of the debt ceiling and FY 2018 appropriations has both political as well as practical effects. For starters FEMA receives some much-needed immediate funds to help address the hurricanes. The nearly $15 billion is just a down payment and will have to be addressed again very
On Wednesday, September 6 the Senate HELP Committee began an initial series of four hearings over two weeks. Chairman Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) struck a strong bipartisan note at the beginning of the hearing indicating that he wanted to find a basic quick bipartisan fix for some key issues and have an agreement together
On September 5, the Trump Administration announced the eventual elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival or DACA. The official announcement was delivered by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It begins another “repeal and replace” debate but this time the President can repeal all on his own. DACA allows an undocumented young person brought into
On Wednesday and Thursday of last week the Senate Appropriations Committee acted on their version of an FY 2018 Labor-HHS-Education bill. Now that the Congress has approved (on Friday) a CR that extends all FY 2018 funding until December 8, this bill will serve as a negotiating point with the House and Administration. The bill,
Child Welfare Services (Title IV-B part 1) and Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF, Title IV-B part 2) expired last year and they have a temporary extension through the end of this fiscal year. As a result of this most recent CR current funding including the court funds will continue for now. The Court Improvement
Last week the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) released a new report, The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014: Uneven State Implementation of Key Policies. The report follows and analysis how states have attempted to implement new requirements under the federal child care programs. The NWLC report examines policy changes in four
Congress is back and the list of priorities have grown due to Hurricane Harvey. That list may have become easier or more difficult because of the need for more disaster relief. That all remains to be seen. There are currently 12 working days when both houses are in session before the end of September and