Congress left Washington, D.C., on Thursday, December 14, 2023, without reaching an agreement on funding for FY2024, a bad sign for the new year. Although the Senate is expected to be back this week to work out an agreement on aid for Ukraine, Israel, and new immigration policies for the southern border, it’s unclear if
On November 30, 2023, the House Ways and Means Committee held a markup to examine HR 2426 the “Find and Protect Foster Youth Act” and HR 3058 “Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2023.” Both bills are bipartisan and bicameral, and both were passed out of committee and will proceed to the full House of
Congress averted another government shutdown last week, passing the “laddered” continuing resolution CR proposal through both chambers. The House passed the bill, which was introduced by Speaker Johnson (R-LA) last weekend, on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, with a bipartisan vote of 336-95 and meeting the two-thirds standard needed to pass bills under suspension of the
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.
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
This week, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced the Housing Alignment and Coordination of Critical and Effective Supportive Health Services (ACCESS) Act. The legislation would align housing and services for people experiencing chronic homelessness and unnecessary institutionalization. In sum, the bill aims to make Medicaid services work better with housing.
Congress has just five days to negotiate and pass a bill to continue to fund the government after the end of the fiscal year on September 30th, 2023. Last weekend, leadership of both the House Freedom Caucus and House Main Street Caucus released a stopgap proposal, or continuing resolution (CR) that would temporarily fund the
Child Poverty Reduction Act On September 21, 2023, Representative Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), Representative Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA), Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA), and U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced the Child Poverty Reduction Act of 2023 to commit the nation to cutting child poverty by half in 5 years and to
On September 13, 2023, Representatives Katherine Clark (D-MA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act to extend vital federal child care stabilization funding, which is
The Senate returned from recess last Monday, September 4, 2023, and the House will return to Washington, D.C. this week to resume work on the numerous legislative priorities before them, the most pressing of which is finding a way to fund the government past September 30th, the end of the fiscal year. With just about
