September 2003Vol 16, No. 4Congress to Consider Foster Care Block GrantThe U.S. House of Representatives is expected to soon introduce and act on a White House proposal to reform the child welfare financing system and allow states to cap, or block grant, their Title IV-E foster care funds.Currently, each state is entitled to receive funds for each eligible child in its care, with no limit on the funds granted to the states. Under the White House proposal, each state would have an option to receive a fixed, predetermined allocation, or block grant, of Title IV -E foster care maintenance payments, administrative costs, and training funds. If a state decided to accept this option, it would receive a set amount of funding for five years, with no option of returning to the current funding system, even if caseloads or costs were to increase dramatically. The formula for each state's fixed allotment would be based on a projected five-year cost estimate that is, in turn, based on a continuing link with 1996 AFDC standards, thereby resulting in an amount correlated to a smaller eligible population. In exchange for an agreement to freeze funding at this level, each state would have the flexibility to use these funds for foster care, prevention services, and any other child welfare service, and would no longer have to determine eligibility for individual children. Although the current child welfare financing system is inadequate to provide the safety, permanence, and wellbeing that federal law requires, CWLA opposes the White House proposal. As a waiver proposal, it may serve the interests of a limited number of states, but as this Administration's effort to reform child welfare financing, it falls far short of what is necessary to ensure the safety, permanence, and well-being of the country's most vulnerable children:
Additional materials on "Financing Child Welfare Services" are available online at www.cwla.org/advocacy. See specifically: Financing Child Welfare Services www.cwla.org/advocacy/financing.htm Legislative Alert: Congress to Consider Foster Care Cap (7/2/03) www.cwla.org/advocacy/alrt030702.htm Principles of Child Welfare Reform www.cwla.org/advocacy/financingreformprincipal.htm Child Welfare Financing Proposals www.cwla.org/advocacy/financingproposal.htm Includes a further description of the White House proposal and pending Congressional activity. CWLA Testimony Submitted to the House Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means for the Hearing on the Bush Administration Foster Care Flexible Funding Proposal, June 11, 2003 www.cwla.org/advocacy/financingtestimony030611.htm This testimony contains CWLA's call for comprehensive reform and highlights CWLA's concerns with the White House Foster Care Funding Proposal. Overview of Title IV-E Foster Care Program www.cwla.org/advocacy/overviewtitleIV-E.htm
Senate Committee Approves TANF ReauthorizationOn September 10, the Senate Finance Committee approved its version of legislation to reauthorize Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) for five years. Now, however, Congress is moving to approve a six-month extension of the current TANF law, with no increased funds, and then take up reauthorization again next year.The Senate Finance Committeepassed bill is only a modest improvement over the TANF reauthorization bill (H.R. 4) passed earlier this year in the House of Representatives. A summary of that bill is available on CWLA's website at www.cwla.org/advocacy/tanf4summary.htm. The Senate bill increases work hours for adults to 34 hours, instead of the current 30-hour requirement. It requires mothers with children younger than 6 to work 24 hours, instead of the current 20-hour requirement. The key issue in the Senate TANF debate, however, is the level of child care funding. Similar to the House version, the Senate bill provides only a $200 million increase in child care funds in the first year, then freezes child care funding for the next four years. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) indicated in the Finance Committee that she supports significant new resources for child care and will offer an amendment to increase funding by $6 billion to $7 billion when the bill is considered by the full Senate. During the committee debate, some Senators supported increasing child care funding by $11.25 billion-the level endorsed by CWLA and other advocates. Opponents of additional child care funding, including the White House, argue that the recently passed state fiscal relief package already provides states with funds for child care. The reauthorization bill includes a "universal engagement" provision that would require states to assess the skills, work experience, education, and barriers to employment of adult TANF recipients and to develop self-sufficiency plans for each TANF family. It would also require an assessment of TANF recipients before any sanctioning action against them. Under this bill, states could engage recipients in "rehabilitative services" designed to address barriers to employment, or in education or training programs. TANF recipients could participate in certain activities designed to address barriers to employment for six months, including disability, substance abuse, or low literacy levels, and to count these activities toward the work rates. After six months, however, such activities only would count if the recipient also participated in standard work activities for 24 hours each week. Hill HighlightsCongress to Finalize FY 2004 Spending BillsThroughout September, Congress has focused on completing the annual appropriations bills. Since much work remains on these bills, Congress will likely pass one or several short-term spending measures to keep the government running beyond the start of the federal fiscal year October 1. The House of Representatives has passed its version of the bills that fund programs administered by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Justice, and Housing and Urban Development. The Senate will likely act on these bills in September. House and Senate conference committees will then meet to resolve any differences between their respective versions.Click here to view a chart that shows the status of FY 2004 funding of selected federal children's programs. Congress Rejects President's Request for Additional Child Abuse Prevention Funding Earlier this year, President Bush asked Congress to increase funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program and education and training vouchers for youth aging out of foster care. He proposed a $100 million increase for PSSF, to $505 million, and an increase in the voucher program from $41.7 million to $60 million. Unfortunately, neither the House nor the Senate approved these increases in their FY 2004 appropriations bills. By a vote of 49 to 46, most Senators supported an amendment to fully fund these programs. Unfortunately, due to a parliamentary requirement, the amendment needed 60 votes to pass. To find out how your Senators voted on this amendment, go to www.cwla.org/advocacy/pssfvote.htm. With strong support from the President and advocates, Congress can still approve these increases this year. A House-Senate conference committee will soon meet to set final funding for FY 2004. Those funding levels will then go to the Senate and House for a final vote. Agencies and organizations can sign on to a letter to the President asking him to continue to fight for full funding at www.cwla.org/advocacy/pssfletter.htm. PSSF is one of the few sources of federal funding that supports prevention services. States use these funds for four categories of services: adoption support, family preservation, family reunification, and family support. Increasing PSSF funding is especially important this year because state budgets are under great stress, and many social services are being cut or eliminated. Congress provided first-time funding of $41.7 million in FY 2003 for educational and training vouchers for youth aging out of foster care and youth adopted from foster care at age 16 or older. This program provides a critical resource for older foster and adopted youth to get the training and educational support they need to make a successful transition to adulthood. House Continues Juvenile Justice Cuts Funding for juvenile delinquency prevention has been on the chopping block for the past two years, and this trend continues in the House-passed FY 2004 spending bill for the U.S. Department of Justice. The bill slashes funding for the Juvenile Accountability Block Grant to $100 million, down from $190 million in FY03 and $249.5 million in FY02. Funding for the Title V Local Delinquency Prevention Grant program would increase over the FY03 level but still would be a cut from previous years, while earmarks continue to increase. FY04 funding for Title V was set at $92.3 million-but earmarks for special purposes total $57.5 million, leaving only $34.8 million for grants. Funding for the new Delinquency Prevention Block Grant (DPBG) is inadequate at only $40 million. Total FY03 funding for programs consolidated in DPBG is $127.3 million. These cuts are particularly troubling since a strong, effective juvenile justice system was recently reaffirmed by passage of the bipartisan Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (P.L. 107-273), which gave state and local governments more flexibility in addressing juvenile crime and delinquency, with a greater emphasis on prevention, treatment, and alternatives to incarceration. Additional funds are necessary to successfully integrate these options into the juvenile justice system. To strengthen the juvenile justice system to meet the prevention and rehabilitative needs of adjudicated youth and those at risk of adjudication, Congress must invest adequately in community-based juvenile crime prevention efforts and state juvenile justice efforts to reduce crime and delinquency. Low-Income Housing Funds Insufficient The House FY04 appropriations bill that funds the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development increases funding for Section 8 lowincome housing assistance vouchers $810 million over FY 2003 levels. That increase reflects an amendment introduced on the House floor by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that added $150 million. This spending bill rejects the Bush Administration's attempt to convert the Section 8 low-income housing assistance program from a voucher program to block grants. Advocates continue to press for additional funding for the Section 8 program to cover rising rents for existing vouchers and provide for additional vouchers. Even with the increase in the House bill, some 68,000 vouchers will not be funded without additional resources. Never before in the program's three-decade history has Congress failed to provide sufficient funds to renew all vouchers in use. CARE Act Increases SSBG FundingEarlier this year, the Senate passed the CARE Act (S. 476), which included $1.375 billion in new funds for the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The Senate bill would fund SSBG at $1.975 billion this year and $2.8 billion in 2004.The table below shows how much each state would receive if the Senate SSBG provisions were included in the final version of the CARE Act. The bill also allows, for two years, charitable deductions of up to $250 for those people who file their tax returns using the short form. The bill also expands some other forms of charitable giving and is intended to provide technical assistance to charitable groups in applying for government funds. The House, which passed its version, H.R. 7, on September 17, included some of the same tax provisions as the Senate bill but did not include SSBG funding. A House-Senate conference committee will meet to reconcile the respective differences and decide on a final bill.
Source: FFIS Federal Funds Information for States Issue Brief 03-16 SCHIP Funding Extended to StatesIn August, Congress passed unanimously H.R. 2854, sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Chair Billy Tauzin (R-LA), to extend the use of $2.7 billion of unspent SCHIP dollars from fiscal years 1998-2001.President Bush signed the bill into law (P.L. 108-74) on August 15. Half of the unspent funds will stay with the states, and the other half will be redistributed to those states that have already spent their allocations. The table below shows how much each state will receive. The bill will also allow those states with preexisting Medicaid expansions (up to at least 185% of the federal poverty level) to use 20% of their original SCHIP allocations on these beneficiaries -reimbursing the states for the difference between their Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage and the enhanced SCHIP rate. How Much Would Your State Get from the "SCHIP Fix"?
Source: Calculations by Families USA, August 7, 2003, based on H.R. 2854 and SCHIP expenditure data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), "SCHIP Federal Allotments and Application of Expenditures: Status at 9/30/02,"December 2002. © 2003 Families USA. Reprinted by permission. *Redistributed by CMS in March 2003. Funds will now be available through the end of FY 2004. **Funds still to be distributed by CMS. House Approves Head Start Block GrantOn July 24, by a narrow vote of 217- 216, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2210 to block grant the Head Start program. Twelve Republicans joined with all Democratic House members to oppose the bill.CWLA opposes efforts to allow Head Start funding to be diverted from local providers to states as a block grant. The bill, which underwent several last-minute changes to obtain additional votes, would allow the first eight states that apply to receive Head Start funding as a state block grant. Sponsors claim that states receiving these block grants would have to meet the same Head Start quality standards and maintain current spending on similar preschool efforts. The actual bill language, however, suggests that states only have to meet the same "general" standards. The bill defines state spending as funds appropriated at the state and local level. Some states however, could count federal funds appropriated by the state in their total of state spending. Title I of the House bill focuses mainly on reauthorization of the existing Head Start program and would require increased teacher qualifications, an expansion of the role of federally funded state offices that promote collaboration between Head Start and other early childhood education programs. Title II contains the block grant option. A new issue, which developed late in the House debate, has created additional opposition-a provision that would allow religiously affiliated providers to discriminate in hiring practices. Religiously affiliated providers have run their Head Start programs under the same nondiscrimination laws as nonreligious providers. Despite passage in the House, the close vote sent a strong signal to the Senate to consider a different approach. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held its first Head Start hearing on July 23. At that hearing, Senator Edward Kennedy (DMA), the committee's ranking democratic member, stated his opposition to any bill that included a "50-state block grant, or even a one-state block grant." Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) also indicated his concerns about the House proposal. After the House vote, published comments by Committee Chair Gregg Judd (R-NH) made clear his opposition to the House bill and indicated the proposal had virtually no chance of passage in the Senate. If the Senate passes a reauthorization of Head Start without the block grant, the two bills will have to be negotiated in a House-Senate conference committee. Senate Holds Children's Mental Health HearingsOn July 15 and 17, the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs met to discuss children's mental health services and custody.The hearing was in response to a GAO study, commissioned by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Representatives Pete Stark (D-CA) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), that found a significant number of parents relinquish custody of their children to the child welfare and juvenile justice systems so the children can receive needed mental health treatment. These parents can provide healthy homes for their children in every other way, but they cannot provide the mental health treatment the children need. The are often middle-class families who either have no health insurance or have reached the cap of the small amount their insurance allows for mental health treatment. They don't qualify for Medicaid because of their incomes; and even if they did qualify, many communities have a shortage of mental health treatment resources. GAO offered several suggestions to stem the tide of voluntary placements, including interagency cooperation to ensure complete coverage. There was also talk of amending HHS guidelines to clarify custody requirements for mental health treatment. CWLA and other child and mental health organizations have been working with Stark and Kennedy to draft legislation addressing this issue. The bill would provide grants to states to help eliminate the practice of parents relinquishing custody of seriously emotionally disturbed children to state agencies solely for the purpose of securing mental health care for those children. State plans would be developed through a collaborative process including state and private partners and others designated by the governor. The state would have to have prohibitions in place for relinquishing custody solely for the purpose of accessing mental health care. The plan would have to establish a system of care to deliver home- and community-based mental health services, inpatient mental health services, and wraparound services of appropriate intensity to eligible children and youth, coordinating services among relevant state agencies-including procedures for referrals by child welfare and juvenile justice systems. CAPTA ReauthorizedOn June 25, the President signed the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act (P.L. 108-36), reauthorizing the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). The law authorizes funding for CAPTA state and discretionary grants and research through FY 2008, including $120 million authorized for the 2004 fiscal year.Congress has never appropriated funding for CAPTA near the authorized level. Current funding for CAPTA state grants is $22 million; discretionary grants, used for research and practice, are funded at $34 million. The law expands use of CAPTA state grants to include support for ongoing case management; updating technology for reporting; training to promote collaboration with families; improving quality and availability of caseworkers; improvements in supervision, recruitment, and retention of caseworkers; collaboration between agencies to provide prevention and treatment services; referrals to address health and mental health; and collaboration between child protective services (CPS) and the juvenile justice system. Eligibility for these state grants now includes additional requirements, such as appropriate referrals to CPS to address the needs of newborns suffering from prenatal drug exposure. Although hospitals must notify CPS, the requirement is to allow CPS to develop a plan of "safe care" for the infant; the notification cannot establish a definition under federal law of what constitutes child abuse or require "prosecution for any illegal action." States are to report annually to HHS how funds are used alone or in combination with other federal funds to achieve CAPTA's objectives. Research activities funded by HHS can include longitudinal research; research on the effects of maltreatment on child development; identification of successful early intervention services; research on "multidisciplinary, coordinated decisionmaking procedures"; a national incidence study to include child maltreatment by reason of family structure, parental living arrangement, family income and size, work status, education attainment, and grandparents as caregivers; evaluation of best practices for improving CPS; and effective approaches for collaboration between CPS and the juvenile justice system. The law also reauthorizes the Community-Based Family Resource and Support grants-changing the name to Community-Based Grants for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect- at $80 million for FY 2003 and such sums as are necessary each year thereafter through FY 2008. This program is currently funded at $33 million. Changes to these grants include an updated definition of children with disabilities so it conforms to the definition in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It also redefines family resource and support programs and outreach services as community-based and prevention focused programs and activities to prevent child abuse and neglect as follows: organizations such as family resource programs, family support programs, voluntary home visiting programs, respite care programs, parenting education, mutual support programs, and other community programs or networks of such programs that provide activities that are designed to prevent or respond to child abuse and neglect.Title II of the law reauthorizes the Adoption Opportunities Act (AOA) at $40 million. AOA is currently funded at $27 million. The law makes no changes to this program. Title III reauthorizes the Abandoned Infants Assistance Act at $45 million for FY 2004 and such sums as may be necessary through FY 2008. The program is currently funded at $12 million, with $13 million requested by the President for FY 2004. The law expands the definition of comprehensive services as
comprehensive support services for such infants and young children and their families and services to prevent the abandonment of such infants and young children, including foster care services, case management services, family support services, respite and crisis intervention services, counseling services, and group residential home services.In addition to the evaluation of local programs, the bill provides for a study of the number of abandoned infants and young children, defining them as those who (1) are infected with, or have been perinatally exposed to, the human immunodeficiency virus, or have a lifethreatening illness or other special medical need; or (2) have been perinatally exposed to a dangerous drug. Runaway and Homeless Youth Act ApprovedWith bipartisan support, the House approved reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHY, H.R. 1925) on May 20. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved its version, S. 1451) September 25.This bill, which reauthorizes RHY for five years, gives vital support for community-based initiatives working to reunite runaway and homeless youth with their families or, when that is not possible, provide transitional services to prepare them for adulthood. The legislation includes two critical improvements. Young people would be able to remain in a transitional living program beyond the 18-month maximum when they have reached the cap but have not yet reached their 18th birthday; they would be allowed to stay until they turn 18. The bill also adjusts the formula to determine funding levels between the basic centers program and the transitional living program. Currently, only up to 30% can be used for transitional living; remaining funding has to be used for basic centers. The legislation allows between 45% and 55% to be used for transitional living, better reflecting current community needs. A new subsection in the bill would authorize maternity group homes. Sometimes referred to as Second Chance Homes, maternity group homes provide a safe, nurturing environment for pregnant and parenting teens who have no place else to go. Second Chance Homes are community-based, adult-supervised homes that give pregnant or parenting teens and their children a supportive place to live, where parenting teens can learn about child development, family budgeting, health and nutrition, and other parenting skills to promote economic independence and ensure the well-being of their children. The full Senate is expected to pass RHY reauthorization soon. Points of InterestKinship Cases Focus of EITC PrecertificationIn an effort to cut back on fraud under the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is designing a filing system that will focus largely on kin who claim a credit for children. These families will be required to prove a relationship between the child and the claimant and that the child does indeed live with the claimant.Married parents and single mothers will be exempt from these requirements. All other kin; foster parents; adoptive parents, pending adoption; and singleparent fathers will have to prove their relationship with the child and that the child lives with them. As a result of strong opposition from CWLA and several other organizations, the IRS has modified its initial plans, eliminating a requirement that the tax filer provide a marriage certificate to prove any stepparent relationship. Another form, however, will be required to prove the child's residency. The IRS has also changed its plan to send out these precertifications this past summer. Instead, it will wait until December, closer to when tax preparers and others are available to answer tax questions. The IRS has also decided to start with a smaller sample of 25,000 taxpayers, instead of 40,000, and will await results before making a final decision to expand the entire process to one million people. CWLA 2004 National ConferenceSave the Date! Back to top  Homepage
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