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
Last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on the issue of unregulated custody transfers what some in the news media have labeled as "rehoming." The GAO report, Steps Have Been Taken to Address Unregulated Custody Transfers of Adopted Children was undertaken at the request of Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Congressman Jim
The poverty rate in 2014 changed little from the previous Census data according to the annual release by the Census Bureau. The income report was released on Wednesday, September 16 and it showed that In 2014, the official poverty rate was 14.8 percent with 46.7 million people in poverty. The poverty rate for children under age
The Child Welfare and Supportive Housing Resource Center brought together participants from five place-based initiative sites to discuss the progress of their new efforts. The pilots are attempting to better assist child welfare involved families through an intensive approach that combines supportive housing and human services in an effort to keep families together. The five
New data by the Census Bureau released on Wednesday showed a significant drop in the percentage of people without health insurance. According to the new census report, the percentage of people without health insurance coverage decreased between 2013 and 2014 by 3.0 percent (actual 2.9 percent). The data is based on the Bureau’s American Community
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.
