The President used April 15, tax day to highlight his proposed expansion of a child care expansion proposal first unveiled in January. The President called for an expanded child care credit which is designed to compliment and wrap around federal child care funding. The current child care tax credit would be expanded for families with
On Wednesday, April 15 Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act of 2015. It makes the current adoption tax credit fully refundable. The adoption tax credit was made permanent in the American Taxpayer Relief Act in January 2013 but the law did not extend the refundability
Congress returns this week with one of its top goals the passage of a single House-Senate budget resolution. The agreements that allowed the House and Senate budget resolutions (H. Con Res 27 and S. Con. Res. 11 ) to pass included significant defense spending increases but those increases were included because both houses classified it
A letter that went to Capitol Hill on March 12, with more than 65 national organizations signing on in support of the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) has now been re-opened for signatures by state and local organizations, associations and governments. Sign up can be accessed here. The two budget resolutions being negotiated did not
Late Tuesday, April 7, HELP Committee Chair and Ranking Member Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released a bipartisan draft to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The law more commonly known as the “No Child Left Behind Act” since its last reauthorization in 2002, will be taken up and
When the Senate returns it is hoped that they will quickly follow up on a March 26 approval by the House of Representatives to replace the Medicare SRG “doc fix” and also extend by two years two key programs: the home visiting program, MIECHV for two years and a two year extension of the CHIP
Last week both the House and Senate passed their budget resolutions setting up a negotiation over the spring break. On Wednesday, March 25 the House of Representatives gave final approval to their version of a budget resolution (H. Con Res 27). The resolution passed with Republican votes only. It passed by a vote of 228
A letter in support of the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) is open for additional signatures. The original letter in support of SSBG was sent to Capitol Hill on March 12, with over 65 national organizations signing on to a letter that asked Congress to protect the human services funding from further budget cutting. The
On Thursday, March 26 the House of Representatives took up the SRG “doc fix” bill and passed it in overwhelming bipartisan fashion by a vote of 392 to 37. The legislation (HR 2), if enacted, will not only permanently replace what has become an almost annual ritual of supplanting the current provider payments through Medicare
The House of Representatives started the process last Tuesday when the Budget Committee unveiled its resolution. It includes more than $5.5 trillion in cuts over 10 years. It would do this by converting Medicaid into a block grant to states and reducing projected funding by $913 billion over that ten year period. It would repeal
