The debate over health care has once again raised the specter of the role of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) with Members of Congress and the President assaulting the office because they don't like their non-partisan projections that are not favorable to their bill. It's an old Washington parlor game but if you looked closely,
The House Budget Committee (and the Senate) is well behind schedule since resolutions are usually completed in April but the battle lines seem to have become bigger and harder over the past week. A little more than a week to ten days ago the outlines of a House Budget Committee deal seemed clear. What had
The Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program is currently set to expire on September 30, 2017. The Home Visiting Coalition is asking for advocates to help build grassroots support. Last week, the coalition was informed that the MIECHV Reauthorization Bill had not been moved to markup for a committee vote this week because
When and if Congress moves forward on a tax package late this year or next year one of the more vulnerable tax provisions is the Adoption Tax Credit. CWLA has been a longtime supporter of this tax credit which has taken on various forms and sizes over the past two decades. At times, it has
Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) plans to have a final vote on the Senate majority health bill by the end of this week. The Senate bill, released on Thursday morning, modifies the House bill but for the most part sticks to the same core elements: eliminates the individual mandates, weakens requirements that all
Last Tuesday, June 20, the House of Representatives adopted a series of bipartisan child welfare bills. The five bills were all taken from last year’s Families First legislation that had been adopted by the House last summer. Taken together the bills would speed up placements across state lines, improve regional partnership substance use treatment grants
As the week came to a close, Budget Committee leaders in the House of Representatives appear to be getting closer to a final deal. The budget resolution sets the spending levels for fiscal year 2018 and it can also set up another reconciliation instruction/bill that would ultimately have as its goal cuts to mandatory and
It would not be an exaggeration to say that advocates for preserving the Affordable Care Act are extremely concerned that a Senate bill will pass shortly before the July 4th break. If that happens and 50 votes are rounded up, passage by the House is very likely. The Senate language is being held very tight
A Wednesday vote on a series of child welfare bills was cancelled last week after the Congressional baseball practice shooting. Instead the House Ways and Means Committee discharged the bills with the intent they will be taken up on the House floor. That floor date and vote has been set for Tuesday, June 20. The
Now that the House Republicans have introduced a reauthorization of the MIECHV (Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting), or home visiting program there are a number of concerns with the current legislative draft. The Increasing Opportunity through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act (HR 2824), while it would extend the program for five year as CWLA and
