CWLA recognized three members of Congress for their advocacy and work over the past year. Senator Patty Murray was recognized on Monday as a Congressional Champion for her on going work on behalf of children. As the Ranking Member of the Senate HELP Committee and as a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education she has been a strong advocate for children. Currently she is working on a reauthorizing the ESEA and she is sponsoring legislation and efforts to strengthen the requirements that attempt to assure access to education for children in foster care. She has also been a longtime advocate of homeless children and youth. The other two awards for Advocate of the Year went to Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Congresswoman Renee Ellmers(R-NC) for their efforts to reauthorize and extend the home visiting program, MIECHV. Both had spearheaded bipartisan letters during the recent debate to extend the Medicare DRG payment system. In her remarks Congresswoman Ellmers highlighted the importance of extending the home visiting program as well as the CHIP program that both received two years extensions as part of the Medicare “doc-fix” package. Senator Grassley in a press release said “Working to improve the lives of underprivileged and vulnerable youth is something I strongly support. The league does great work for these kids and I’m honored to receive this award.”
In his press statement he indicated he “works to advance legislation to improve the well-being of children, including recently the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, which promotes child health and abuse prevention among at-risk families.”
