On the last day of summer session, Thursday, July 14, the Senate approved the conference report on the “CARA” legislation and sent the legislation onto the President who will sign it. The vote was 92 to 2 with only Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) voting no. CARA or the Comprehensive Addiction
On Tuesday, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) held their annual unveiling of their policy report. The report and the panel of speakers are the result of the 2016 CCAI Foster Youth Internship Program® class. The policy report, Powerful Voices: Sharing Our Stories to Reform Child Welfare includes 22 policy recommendation by the 12
On Wednesday, July 13 a bipartisan bill was introduced by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) to encourage coordination between state child welfare and juvenile justice systems in addressing the needs of vulnerable youth caught between the two systems. The Childhood Outcomes Need New Efficient Community Teams (Connect Act) would authorize grants
On Wednesday the House Appropriations Committee Approved a bill that would fund the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS). The bill and committee report reduces spending below current year funding and attaches a number of provisions the President would reject. Overall the bill provides $161.6 billion which is a cut of
Holding Pattern in Senate Last week efforts to adopt the House version of the Family First Prevention Services Act, (HR 5456) (Conference Report 114-628) continued but success has stalled—at least temporarily. By week’s end the only thing that was clear is that they had not yet reached unanimous support for the bill and passing it.
Squeezed in between last week’s presidential politics, the House and Senate were trying to work out final deals on mental health and drug legislation. House-Senate Conferees agreed to a bill or conference report on the “CARA” legislation although the Democrats were holding out for increased appropriations that would fund the new provisions. The House adopted
On Thursday, July 7, First Focus conducted their annual Children’s Budget Summit and released their new Children’s Budget 2016 book but it may have been the keynote remarks that captured the moment. New York Times columnist, Charles Blow reflected on the fresh news of a second shooting in as many days of a black man
On Thursday the House Subcommittee on Appropriations for the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS) approved a bill that reduces spending below current year funding and attaches a number of provisions the President would reject. Overall the bill provides $161.6 billion which is a cut of $569 million below this year.
Holding Pattern in Senate The Senate comes back mid-week for the waning days of the summer session. Plans are to depart by July 15 with no return until post-Labor Day. As a result, last week there were on-going discussions involving various organizations, foundations, and government representatives with some state and local governments and advocacy groups
On Tuesday, June 28 the Child Welfare League America and the National Association of Social Workers cosponsored a briefing on the child welfare workforce. The briefing entitled, Let's Improve Child Welfare Outcomes: The Workforce Matters, provided background on what it takes to perform some of the critical work within the child welfare field. Panelists included
