On December 5, 2023, Spotlight on Poverty & Opportunity hosted a briefing, “Family Economic Mobility: Finding Bipartisan Pathways to Support Pro-Family Policies,” on Capitol Hill that featured Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA). They highlighted the Connected MOM Act, which would allow expectant mothers to receive medical monitoring remotely during their pregnancies, and
On November 15, 2023, CWLA submitted comments for the record regarding the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on “The Human Rights of Foster Children.” From the testimony: “The National Blueprint states that children have rights to survival, protection, and participation in decision-making regarding their care. Several of the rights championed by CWLA are relevant to the
On November 28, 2023, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing entitled, “The Gun Violence Epidemic: A Public Health Crisis.” Chairman Dick Durbin [D-IL] referred to gun violence as a public health epidemic and highlighted impact of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed in 2022, that implemented several changes to mental health systems,
The Food Research and Action Center held a webinar on November 30, 2023 to discuss the benefits and need for free school meals, regardless of household income, to be provided to all children. These benefits include students being ready to learn, reduced stigma in the lunchroom, the end of school meal debt, and more. There
On Wednesday, November 29th, the Institute for Research on Poverty hosted a webinar entitled “Supporting Engaged Fatherhood and Family Wellbeing: The Role of Policy from the Community Level to the Federal Level.” They brought together four presenters to talk about the role of fathers in the family unit and some of the barriers those fathers
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the law had a hearing on November 7th about social media and the teen mental health crisis. Chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) opened the hearing by introducing the witness, former Director of Engineering for Protection and Care at Facebook turned Meta whistleblower, Aturo Béjar. Senator Blumenthal described Mr.
The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) hosted a webinar on November 16, 2023, entitled "Fighting Hunger with Housing: Actions and Updates for Advocates." They explored the connection between a lack of housing security and food stability, and the adverse health impacts resulting from the inability to afford and access reliable food sources. Hunger and
Children’s Funding Project held a webinar entitled, “National Funding for Children and Youth” to launch their report on their pilot State Child and Youth Fiscal Map Cohort platform. The map includes data for Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and New York on where their
The continuing resolution (CR) currently funding the federal government expires this week, on November 17th, 2023. As of this writing, there has been no deal between the House, the Senate, and the White House to continue funding beyond that date, setting up a high-stakes week for Congressional leadership as they work to resolve their funding
On November 8, 2023, Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray highlighted the need for additional funding for child care during a hearing on the President’s supplemental funding requests for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In her opening
