Last week Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) issued a call for emergency funding to address the heroin and opioid abuse epidemic. Senator Shaheen’s proposal would provide supplemental appropriations totaling $600 million to programs at the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services and draw the funding as emergency spending meaning that it
Appropriations staffers and committee members continued to work toward beating a December 11 deadline when the government will run out of money. Despite the ongoing work it is unclear whether or not issues around policy riders and, as of last week the issue of Syrian refugees, will prevent a deal before the government shuts down.
The Senate is struggling to move a reconciliation bill that would repeal parts of the ACA and cut-off federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Last month the House of Representatives passed a reconciliation measure based on an instruction included in the spring budget resolution. The legislation is political message bill that will certainly be vetoed by
Shortly after Republicans approved Ryan as the Speaker, the House approved the negotiated budget deal by a vote of 266 to 167 with 187 Democrats and 79 Republicans supporting it. It was immediately sent over to the Senate using a previous bill that allowed Senate leaders to fast track the debate on the deal. Early
The Appropriations Committees are now working on a legislative omnibus spending bill for this year with new subcommittee allocations, known as 302(b)s. Policy riders could come up during this process. While this set higher caps for FY 2017 which at least avoids a spring-summer-fall debate over spending caps, it is unclear how appropriations riders including
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has released their annual 2015 State Child Care Assistance Report that reviews state child care services and policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This year’s report, Building Blocks: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2015, shows improvements in 32 states meaning that services were improved in
The Republican House Caucus is expected to vote on the selection of the next Speaker of the House on Wednesday with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WS) the likely winner. Shortly after that they will be confronted with a possible vote on raising the debt ceiling. Ryan announced his intention to run in the middle of last
More complete data released by HHS in the awarding of the adoption and kinship incentives for the Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments Program shows that the new structure and new rate formula benefited at least 25 of the states. The awards discussed here last week are based on a phased-in formula that awarded states
The date of November 3 as the point in which we will reach the debt ceiling was confirmed last week by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The confirmation refutes some criticism that the Administration was playing with the date to increase pressure on Congress. The actual date is is November 3 but some actions could
With a second surprise announcement about the House leadership in less than a month (Boehner retires, McCarthy pulls out of race) the Congress may be heading for a real crisis. Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had what was considered close relationships to many of the most conservative members of the House Republican caucus but that did
