This week will be the first opportunity for Washington to come back together after the presidential election. With dramatic changes in the presidential election, this week will be more than just plotting the rest of the 114th Congress. This will also be a planning stage for how the new leadership and the new Congress will
Since much of the President-elect Trump's agenda was wrapped less around specific domestic issues and more around the larger issues such as immigration and trade, it is not clear what the domestic policy agenda will look like. As a result, the priorities may be wrapped around a few big Trump initiatives and a Republican congressional
On Wednesday, November 2 there was a Capitol Hill briefing on the home visiting program, MIECHV (Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting). The target audience included Capitol Hill staff from both houses and both parties. The goal of the briefing was an early education of congressional staff on the program and how it works. The
Late last month the White House Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force released an important and long-awaited report addressing mental health parity in health care plans. The task force is the result of a March 2016, presidential order creating the task force to build on recent changes in federal law and recent
Nearly a month in the new fiscal year the fate of the FY 2017 budget is anything but certain. When the Congress returns on November 14, they must act on 11 of the 12 appropriations bills. Military Construction, separate from defense appropriations, is the only appropriations bill signed into law. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) has
The National Center for Children in Poverty has released a new policy paper on the status of Medicaid access for young people formerly in foster care. The paper, FOSTERING HEALTH: The Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and Youth Transitioning from Foster Care, describes the impact of a provision in the ACA that requires that youth
Recently National Public Radio (NPR) ran a report on a fateful turn in the history of this nation’s child care system dating back to the early 1970s. The story outlines how close we came to a universal child care system. Close enough for a Democratic Congress to pass in 1971 a system of care that
For the states that raised objections to parts of the Families First Act, specifically California, New York, Texas and Wyoming, the Child Trends survey gives some perspective. California and New York which raised serious concerns over the re-structuring both draw-down and spend significant amounts on child welfare. In 2014 California spent slightly more than $4
In the past week two discussions were taking place across the two houses of Congress that could dramatically effect budgets, entitlements and policies. In comments made at his regular press briefing, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) made clear that he intends to use the budget reconciliation to adopt his conservative agenda if Donald Trump is President
There was no vote on the Family First Prevention Services Act, (HR 5456, Conference Report 114-628) as Congress finished a budget deal last week Wednesday. As a result, the bill still remains in the same place. That means that it could be finished or dead for this Congress. There could be one more run at
