Congress has started to step up their hearing process for appropriations with several committees and subcommittees, holding preliminary reviews and testimony from Administration officials. Concurrently, there has been no more clarity on the debt ceiling front except for the fact that the Administration reaffirmed the need to raise it before the August break. The Democrats
The Urban Institute has released a new analysis of the TANF block grant, Why Does Cash Welfare Depend on Where You Live? The report emphasizes that only a small share of families living in poverty receive cash assistance, and that that share has fallen dramatically in the last 20 years. That is a reaffirmation of
Last week, the American Youth Policy Forum unveiled a new web-based resource center called Understanding Foster, Juvenile Justice, and Crossover Youth. The site is part of an effort to educate policy-makers on the needs of foster care, juvenile justice, and crossover youth. The hope is that it will serve as a quick, easy-to-read overview of
The Congress returns this week for what promises to be a very challenging and unpredictable two-months. Before Congress leaves for the August summer break, they will attempt to deal with most of the 2018 appropriations, raise the debt ceiling, vote out a Senate version of an ACA repeal, continue dealing with the ongoing hearings/controversies on
The debt ceiling must be raised again and it could suck all the oxygen out of the political room. Technically the federal government is restricted from paying its bills once the ceiling on total federal debt is hit. Due to federal deficit spending, the ceiling must be raised periodically by Congress. The only time this
The Partnership for Public Service tracks the progress of Administration hiring. There are over 1200 positions that require an OK from the US Senate. Many of these however are somewhat less significant such as commissions, even smaller ambassadorships. But the Partnership tracks what they consider to be key appointments that include number two and three
While dealing with a debt ceiling, Congress must be on a fast track on the FY 2018 appropriations with the new fiscal year starting on October 1. To this point the dozen appropriations committees are in the first stages of hearings, something that would have taken place in February. To make matters worse, a budget
After the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued the new assessment of the American Health Care Act that showed that the amendments made to the original bill costs $32 billion more and it will reduced the number of uninsured under the original bill by only 1 million people, conversations were continuing on a Senate bill. Now
There are dozens of federal programs that need reauthorization and are not likely to get extended, at least not in this year. Some reauthorizations ran out years ago but they can still receive funding through the appropriations process. This includes the Higher Education Act, Head Start, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) which
There were a host of cuts in the President’s budget that come from cuts and the elimination of mandatory and entitlement spending. These would likely take a new reconciliation bill created out of a 2018 budget resolution. As noted both SSBG and TANF are targeted as major revenue raisers through the elimination of SSBG and
