The House Ways and Means Committee followed by the House Commerce and Energy Committee moved their parts of Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) health plan on Thursday, March 9. The Ways and Means Committee gave final approval to their part of the bill on Thursday morning around 2:00 AM. Later that early afternoon the Energy and
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
On Thursday, March 9, more than 80 members of Congress signed onto a letter to denounce a suggestion by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that the Department might look at foster care placements as an enforcement tool regarding immigration. At a press conference, led by Congressperson Karen Bass (D-CA), several members of Congress addressed reporters
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
Last fall when HHS released the new ACFARS Report Number 23, they pointed out that nearly three quarters of states reported an increase in the numbers of children entering foster care from 2014 to 2015. They went on to highlight that the five states with the largest increases were Florida, Indiana, Georgia, Arizona, and Minnesota;
Efforts to better coordinate access to education for children and youth in foster care may have suffered a setback last week Thursday. The Senate approved a roll-back of Obama Administration regulations to implement the new education law. The regulations covered numerous parts of the newly reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education ACT (ESEA). In part the
A coalition group including CWLA has sent Capitol Hill an updated letter of support of SSBG on Thursday. The letter includes more than 75 national organizations and organizations and agencies from all fifty states. CWLA has created a new resource on the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). The new resource are state-by-state fact sheets found
On Wednesday, March 8, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced a bipartisan bill to create a National Criminal Justice Commission. The commission would make recommendations on a range of criminal justice issues. In a time of partisan rancor, the bill is cosponsored by 12 Democrats and 8 Republicans. The bill, S 573 is modeled after a
The President’s desire to provide a ten percent increase in the Defense Department budget could devastate a number of human services and domestic programs. Unless Congress agrees to fund the increase through deficits, the $54 billion will create enormous pressure on the annual appropriations (discretionary spending) which totals only $1.1 trillion out of a federal
Under criticism that they are drafting an ACA repeal in secret, House Republicans are crafting legislation that they could begin to move out of the two key House committees later this week. The White House may also release its official plan which is expected to mirror what Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) is pushing. The plan that
