On Thursday, June 30th the House Appropriations Committee held a markup on the Labor-HHS FY2023 Appropriations bill, the budget bill that covers the Administration of Children and Families. The bill passed with a 32-24 vote, moving forward without any Republican support, due in part to the removal of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal dollars being spent on abortion.
The bill report specifies line item amounts and includes welcomed increases in some areas and flat funding in others:
- $110M for Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) State Grants, which is $14,909,000 above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level.
- $75M for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CB-CAP), which is $9,340,000 above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level.
- $50M for the Adoption Opportunities program, which is $2M above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level and $3,900,000 above the fiscal year 2023 budget request.
- $75M for Adoption and Kinship Incentive Payments
- $82M for Promoting Safe and Stable Families discretionary funding, including $20M for Kinship Navigator Programs and almost $3M for the Family First Prevention Services Clearinghouse.
- $45,257,000 for the Chafee Education and Training Voucher (CETV) program, which is $2M above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level.
- $20M for a new competitive grant program to address racial inequity in the child welfare field and reorient systems towards a prevention-first model.
The report also includes a new provision prohibiting funds for foster care programs from being awarded to an organization that excludes an individual based on non-merit factors such as age, disability, sex, race, color, national origin, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
The four top appropriators are still negotiating top line numbers, which means that the totals approved during the House process are very likely to change.
