Now that the new leadership of the Senate Finance Committee is settling in, there is the possibility that the Congress can finalize the Adoption Incentives reauthorization in the coming weeks. In October the House of Representatives approved the “Promoting Adoption and Legal Guardianship for Children in Foster Care Act” (H.R. 3205). The bill was passed on suspension,
On Thursday, February 27 President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum creating the “My Brother’s Keeper Task Force.” The action will create an interagency effort, chaired by Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary Broderick Johnson, that will determine what public and private efforts are working and how to expand them. The President spoke to the
Last week the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities held its first meeting with all twelve members participating in a vigorous discussion on the issues and challenges before the group. Part of the agenda was allocated to comments by some of the architects of the legislation that created the commission. Staff from the House Ways
When the budget is released tomorrow it will likely maintain CAPTA state grants at its current funding level of just under $26 million. It represents a gradual erosion of funding of a program that is part of a law originally created in 1974 to help the nation address the way we recognized and address child
Child care will get some special attention this week when the Senate begins debate on a reauthorization (S. 1086) of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), and the President unveils his budget on Tuesday. S. 1086 would be the first reauthorization of CCDBG since the 1996 welfare reform law was adopted. It was
Concern: Congress is dragging their feet to pass the bipartisan Adoption Incentives reauthorization and the Family Connections Grants (which have now expired). The delay has already caused us to lose the funding that was found for the Family Connections Grants to be extended. Action: Call your U.S. Senators and Representative. Call the Capitol switchboard to be connected, dial 202-224-3121. Message: Congress should finish
Before leaving for the Martin Luther King holiday, Congress completed action on an omnibus bill, HR 3547, which provides funding for each of the 12 appropriations bills. The two chairs of the appropriations committees, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Congressman Hal Rodgers (R-KY) worked over the previous weekend to complete writing the most controversial parts of
On Thursday, December 12, the Senate Finance Committee passed the “Supporting At-Risk Children Act of 2013.” The legislation bundled together a reauthorization of the adoption incentives fund, new legislative language to address domestic sex trafficking through child welfare, and provisions that deal with child support collection including provisions to address international treaties. The adoption incentives
On July 5th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule implementing provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) including Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility, benefits, and enrollment rules. While the final rule does not cover all of the topics in theproposed rule issued in February, it does focus on the
November 20, 2008 On November 20--the 19th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the world's most ratified international human rights treaty--four panelists presented a briefing to encourage the U.S. Senate to accept the CRC. Focusing on the effect the CRC has on children's health issues,