On July 26, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a new initiative, Foster Youth to Independence (FYI), to offer housing vouchers to young people aging out of foster care and those facing homelessness. HHS reports that more than 20,000 young people age out of foster care each year and many of
Since the National Conference in Washington, D.C. CWLA has reached out to members of Congress advocating for increase funding in key child welfare priority areas and services and supports on child welfare bills including: the reauthorization and increase funding for the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and support for the Family First Transition
On Monday, July 22, 2019, all parties agreed to a two-year budget deal for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. On Thursday of last week, the House of Representatives went first and gave the first approval. If all goes as planned, the Senate will follow this week and send the agreement to the President and
The two-year budget deal being approved by Congress provides important increases over the budget caps, but it will provide approximately $10 billion less than the House had designated for their FY 2020 non-defense appropriations. The House-passed Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations bill provides dramatic increases in several CWLA priorities such as child care and some
On Tuesday, July 23, the Trump Administration issued another proposed rule that would take the nation’s largest food assistance program away from 3 million people by making them ineligible to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register and there is a 60-day public comment period.
A new report by Avalere analyzed the impact of a Medicaid block or per capita cap’s effect on health care funding. The results are very negative especially for children. The study shows that between 2020 and 2029 federal funding lost under a Medicaid block grant would result in a $163 to $143 billion cut
Last month, when the House of Representatives approved a four-bill appropriations package that included appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services (by a vote of 226-to 203) they included an important improvement for child abuse prevention. The final House appropriation for the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CB-CAP) received a $35 million increase to
With time running short, it is looking more and more likely that the hot topic of July through September will be the FY 2020 budget. That budget debate now involves funding levels for the upcoming FY 2020, FY 2021 budgets as well as raising the debt ceiling. It is now believed that the debt ceiling
On Monday, June 24, Congressperson Bass (D-CA) introduced the Child Welfare Data Modernization Act, HR 3438, which would provide temporary federal funds with a match of 75 percent for states, tribes, and territories child welfare data reporting expenses. Since some states and tribes started updating child welfare AFCARS data systems in 2017, the temporary enhanced
The House of Representatives completed action on the Financial Services bill on Thursday. That makes 10 of 12 bills approved before the July 4th break. The remaining two include the Legislative Branch and Homeland Security. The Legislative Branch is likely to move after the break after stalling on a failed attempt to unfreeze congressional salaries
