Shortly before Thanksgiving, the House and Senate passed a second continuing resolution that extended FY 2020 funding until December 20, 2019. Quickly after that, Senator Richard Shelby (D-AL) and Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) as respective chairs of the two appropriations committees agreed to spending allocations between the 12 appropriations bills. Since then, committees have been
The Children’s Trust Fund Alliance held a Congressional Briefing on Thursday, November 14, 2019, titled “Moving Upstream: What works to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect.” The panel featured LaCrisha Rose from the Alliance National Parent Partnership Council and West Virginia Circle of Parents Network, Dr. Melissa Merrick from Prevent Child Abuse America,
Last week S. 2777 and H.R. 4980, the Family First Transition Act was introduced in both houses with bipartisan support. CWLA has endorsed the legislation. The two identical bills will provide $500 million to all states and jurisdictions distributed under Title IV-B, part 1 formula. States will have two years (retroactive to October 1, 2019)
Last week we noted that the Children’s Bureau released the latest history of the Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentives Payment Program—Earnings History by State. The table also shows the state awards for FY 2019. A few days later, the Bureau published the individual categories of awards for each state. The individual categories of awards that
Last week Congressman Danny Davis introduced HR 4768, the Home Visiting to Reduce Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Act. The legislation will increase funding for the home visiting program, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. The Davis bill will increase funding from the current $400 million in mandatory funding to $600 million
On October 2, 2019, the Administration posted in the federal register a solicitation for comments on the current childcare system. The comments which are due December 2, classify comments by Improving Access to Affordable High Quality Care and Transforming Financing of Child Care and Early Education Programs. The solicitation asks for targeted comments regarding supply,
CWLA continues to engage with committee staff and member offices on a pathway forward to address the proposed legislation. At this time, it is critical that we unite in our message – the Family First Transition and Support Act must pass as a comprehensive package, including the “de-link” from the 1996 AFDC eligibility requirements for
When Congress left with a two-year budget deal for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 it looked like they would be able to finish most of the FY 2020 appropriations in September with perhaps a few weeks of a continuing resolution (CR) to finish up. That possibility crashed last Tuesday shortly after Senate Republican unveiled their
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
On Thursday, June 6, the Senate Focus Youth Caucus and Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative (JCYOI) of the Annie E. Casey Foundation sponsored the congressional briefing “Chafee Plus 20” to examine the role the Chafee program has had in supporting better outcomes for youth and facilitate discussion about what how policy can continue to recommend