On Saturday, June 3rd, President Biden signed the debt limit bill, titled the Fiscal Responsibility Act, into law, one week after he and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had struck a deal on the details of the legislation and just ahead of the June 5th deadline. As reported last week, the bill raises
The National Health Collaborative on Violence & Abuse (NHCVA) presented policy recommendations on mental health and substance-use-related effects of violence at a policy briefing on June 1, 2023. During the previous years, Congress has provided unprecedented financing for behavioral health programs and victim assistance. There was an emphasis on how to use the funds to
News broke on Saturday, May 27, 2023, that President Biden and Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) had reached an agreement on the key provisions of a bill to raise the debt ceiling until after the 2024 election. Both the White House and the Speaker of the House released talking points and statements about the agreement, and bill
On May 17, 2023, a hearing was held by the Senate HELP Primary Health & Retirement Subcommittee, “A Crisis in Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Care: Closing Gaps in Access by Bringing Care and Prevention to Communities,” to discuss the disparities in access to mental health and substance use disorder care throughout the country.
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, federal waivers issued by the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided flexibility that enabled child nutrition program operators to feed children amid challenges brought on by the pandemic, according to a new study. “Our study revealed how measures taken at the height
On May 24, 2023, Trust for America’s Health released its annual report, “Pain in the Nation 2023: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths.” The report finds that the rate of U.S. deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide climbed 11 percent in 2021 to a record 209,225 deaths. Key findings include: Drug overdose
A new study in Pediatrics, released on May 22, 2023, found that high school students who have depression think they have greater access to guns than peers who don’t experience this mental health risk for suicide. Guns are the most common method of suicide among teens. The new study asked about guns at home or
As of this weekend no deal has been reached on raising the debt ceiling, despite promising reports earlier in the week that negotiations were going well. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Biden met on Tuesday to continue discussions, and top negotiators for each of them continued meeting throughout the week. On
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a policy brief on May 12, 2023, exploring the connection between the TANF proposals in the debt ceiling negotiations and child welfare involvement. The paper cites research from Chapin Hall, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and others that illustrate that "policies that take cash assistance
On Wednesday May 17, 2023, the House Appropriations began marking up some of the appropriations bills for FY2024. Although the House Majority has not released a budget resolution, the House-passed Limit, Save Grow Act on the debt ceiling has proposed overall discretionary spending be capped at FY2022 levels; it is widely accepted that Defense spending
