With limited action last week beyond the Pope’s visit to Washington and Congress, the status of a government shutdown looked less clear until Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) surprise announcement that he will be leaving both his position and Congress at the end of October. Signals coming from the House are that the more conservative elements
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) have introduced a Senate Resolution recognizing September as National Kinship Care Month. The resolution builds on the effort by several states to also set-aside the month in recognition of families that provide vital kinship care services some within child welfare but many outside of the system.
This past week Montana Governor Steve Bullock announced a plan to improve child protection and child welfare services. The announcement comes against a backdrop of increasing state foster care numbers and a threat by HHS to cut-off CAPTA funds if the state does not come into compliance with that law’s federal requirements on disclosure of
The Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities has been holding a series of deliberation calls to settle on recommendations that have the potential to be wide ranging in their impact on state child protective services and child welfare systems. The Commission established by Congress at the end of 2012 (Protect Our Kids Act
With the government nine days away from running out of funding, by week’s end the only clarity in Congress was a lack of clarity. Congress will end legislative action this week after Tuesday with time off for Yom Kippur on Wednesday and a suspension of legislative action for the Pope’s speech and visit. Here is
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) scheduled for a debate and vote to reauthorize the program on September 17 has been delayed by two weeks. The CACFP is an important support and nutrition program for many child care programs. The program has to subsidize the coast of need meals in a child care
A briefing, Smart Investments: Keeping Kids and Communities Safe, Reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act was held on Thursday, September 17 to encourage congressional action on a reauthorization of the JJDPA. A number of groups including Coalition for Juvenile Justice, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Congress has approximately 7 legislative session days left before we reach the end of the fiscal year on September 30. It is not clear when and how the two houses will move on a continuing resolution (CR). Congress will have no legislative days during the Jewish holidays and the Pope’s visit and speech to Congress
With Congress likely to be discussing appropriations into December there is time for a number of issues and in some cases Congress will have to act. One possibility that was mentioned in early August by Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is a mark-up of child welfare legislation. That is still uncertain and contingent on
Once Congress gets beyond appropriations this month they have a number of other areas that either must be addressed or could receive action: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). TANF must be reauthorized or at least extended beyond September 30. Earlier this summer there were some positive bipartisan developments regarding a five year extension.