On Wednesday, February 12, 2020, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell challenged the theory that our “generous” public assistance programs were encouraging able-bodied adults to stay out of the workforce. The comments came during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. Senator John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) was asking about why the labor participation rates among adults is not
The Administration released its FY 2021 budget on Monday, February 10, 2020. This year’s budget, A Budget for America’s Future, proposes a number of human service cuts and human service funding increases but overall includes reductions in non-defense spending despite last year’s budget agreement. The President’s FY 2021 budget should be based on last summer’s
The Administration proposes the same level of funding for the two CAPTA-related grants for FY 2021 with an increase in one of the grants. State Grants would be funded at $90 million, Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CB-CAP) grants would be funded at $55 million, and CAPTA Discretionary Grants would be increased by $16 million to
The President’s budget again proposes the elimination of the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), eliminating the $1.7 billion entitlement fund to states. They recommend keeping in place the SSBG law to allow the use of the block grant for emergencies and disasters. The rationale they state is the same as past budget justification (2019): “The
With the $5.6 billion cuts to the Department of Education, the Administration’s proposal for the fiscal year 2021 included eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. In 2007, the Bush Administration created the PSLF program under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-84) for individuals who work ten years in
On Tuesday, February 11, 2020, the Youth Development Institute of Puerto Rico (Instituto del Desarrollo de la Juventud, IDJ), held a briefing entitled A Future of Child Poverty in Puerto Rico: How Much it Costs and What We Can Do About It. Congresswoman, Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon [R-PR] explained how alarming the issue of child poverty in
Series of Hearings on Administration Actions that Threaten the Welfare of Children On February 5 and 6, 2020, four subcommittees of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held four hearings to examine the negative effects of regulations proposed by the Trump Administration relating to children including child poverty, housing, hunger, and health. On Wednesday,
The Child Welfare League of America files one of two Supreme Court amici briefs (the other by the NAACP) challenging Alabama’s and other state’s “man-in-the-house” AFDC restriction. The rule cut off assistance to families where the mother was “cohabiting” with a man. In the state of Alabama, between 1964 and 1967, 16,000 children had been
On Wednesday, February 5, the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing titled “A Threat to America’s Children: The Trump Administration’s Proposal to Gut Fair Housing Accountability.” The hearing focused on how the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a proposed rule that would essentially roll back fair housing enforcement
On Thursday, February 6, 2020, the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, held a hearing entitled A Threat to America’s Children: The Trump Administration’s Proposed Changes to Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Five witnesses gave testimony: Lisa Davis, Senior Vice President of the No Kid Hungry Campaign, Zach Pethan, Principal of
