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Sign-On Letter for Organizations to President Bush:
Funding for Promoting Safe and Stable Families & Educational and Training Vouchers
September, 2003
Dear Mr. President:
We appreciate your past support for increased funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) Program and your advocacy for and support of the Education and Training Vouchers Program for youth who age out of foster care. These funding increases are needed to help the hundreds of thousands of children who are abused and neglected, the 130,000 children in foster care waiting for adoptive families, and the estimated 20,000 young people aging out of foster care each year.
We urge that you take action now to ensure that increased funding for both of these programs is included in the FY 2004 Appropriations Bill for the Department of Health and Human Services when the Appropriations Conference Committee makes it final decisions in the next several weeks. Please urge the Conference Committee to support your full 2004 budget request by adding $100 million to the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program, and $18.7 million to the Education and Training Vouchers Program for youths who age out of foster care. This will bring funding for these programs to the $505 million and $60 million levels, respectively, that you committed to in your 2004 budget request.
The additional funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program will promote the expansion of family support services in communities, more intensive help for families in crisis, and adoption and post-adoption services for children waiting in foster care. The increase for the Education and Training Vouchers Program will build on state efforts to help older youths leaving foster care get the higher education or vocational training they need to move to self-sufficiency.
The children and families we serve and advocate for need your leadership to ensure that these funding increases are included in the FY 2004 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill, without jeopardizing funding for other key services for children and families.
We are fully aware of the tough economic challenges ahead for this country, however we cannot ignore the needs of our vulnerable children, youth and families. We hope that we can count on your support.
Sincerely,
Click Here to See the Signatories
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