On Wednesday, March 29, CWLA members gathered in Washington for the annual CWLA National Conference. After the morning policy seminar members were charged up by Congressman Joseph Kennedy III (D-MA). The Congressman has become an outspoken champion of protecting the ACA in particular the expanded access to mental health and substance use treatment. In his
Last week congressional leaders were sounding off about the need to finish the FY 2017 budget at the end of this month without a government shut-down. With Democrats signaling that they would oppose any FY 17 appropriation bill that included the President’s $2 to $3 billion down payment to start a wall, Republican leaders were
With Congress headed into a two-week break, it will be the biggest opportunity for voters to meet their member since last year’s election. Go visit your Member of Congress at the next town hall! Families USA has a calendar that can tell you when your Member of Congress is back home and ready to hear
On Wednesday, CWLA members will begin to gather in Washington DC for the annual CWLA National Conference. The Conference located within walking distance of the Capitol Hill dome will allow the approximately 500 registrants to make their voices heard right during the intense debates on health care, budgets and other controversies. As part of the
On Friday afternoon President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) pulled the American Health Care Act from a floor to prevent a vote that would have ended in defeat. The loss came after a tumultuous week of changes to the bill just a few days earlier. Essentially Ryan could not come up with a
The President’s proposed budget for discretionary spending for 2018 landed with a crash as it includes dramatic cuts across agencies and departments as a way to pay for increases to the Pentagon. The proposal was released on Thursday, March16 and applies to the discretionary portion of federal spending with the rest to be published with
On Tuesday, March 14, CWLA sent a letter to Capitol Hill opposing the American Health Care Act. Citing the new Congressional Budget Office analysis, in the letter, CWLA President and CEO Chris James-Brown points out the importance of expanded mental health and substance abuse services saying, “The availability of health care coverage through the Affordable
Late Monday, March 13, The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its required analysis of the American Health Care Act concluding that it would both reduce the number of people with health insurance while cutting health care costs to the federal government. The analysis determined that 14 million people would become uninsured next year (2018), 21
The House health care plan confronts what are two overarching Medicaid issues but the second one may be the most significant. The first issue is how to deal with the Medicaid expansion enacted under the ACA. Thirty-one states have expanded their Medicaid programs to all adults up to 138 percent of poverty. The second issue
The Trump Administration will release its “skinny budget” this week on either March 15 or March 16. It is referred to as a skinny budget because it will include only “top-line” figures meaning possibly only larger agency and department budgets will be listed without the program specifics. This approach is somewhat traditional for other first
