Finance Reform

A continuing appropriations bill released last night by House Republican leadership includes enactment of the Family First Prevention Services Act, a bill that failed to pass the Senate in 2016 and would significantly alter the federal entitlement for child welfare services.

In June, the Trump administration hired Jerry Milner to lead the federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees federal child welfare funding and policy. The Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) was established in 1977 and oversees the Family and Youth Services Bureau as well as the much larger Children’s Bureau, which was created by President William Howard Taft back in 1912.

The Senate Finance Committee quickly followed the release of its report on privatization of foster care on Wednesday with legislation that tracked many of the recommendations made in the report. You can read all about the report here, and the bill here.

Note: CLICK HERE for an updated Trump Budget Request chart, which includes the 2017 appropriations figures from the recent omnibus deal reached in early May. President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget proposal includes a slate of deep cuts and eliminations of programs aimed at serving youth and families, but includes a hefty increase in the amount spent on an entitlement for foster care and adoption assistance.

In 1984, George Orwell defined “doublethink” as holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting them both. In child welfare, for example, we have been told for decades that child welfare systems don’t take away children because their families are poor.

A bill aimed at incentivizing employers to hire current and former foster youth has been introduced in the House and Senate. The Improved Employment Outcomes For Foster Youth Act (H.R. 2060 and S.

Much attention has been paid recently, and alarm bells sounded, at the expressed plans of the Trump administration and Congress to eliminate programs and cut back on entitlements that support the poorest and most vulnerable American families and children.

The sun will soon set on a year of great upheaval in the American cultural fabric. The Chicago Cubs are World Series champions. It seemed like a different famous musician or thespian died every day.

Yesterday, a bipartisan bill to reform child welfare financing looked like it had risen from the ashes. Today, it was dropped back into the chimney soot. Late last weekend, the House attached the Family First Preservation Services Act to the 21st Century Cures Act, a much larger bill that funds medical research, speeds up the approval process for drugs and devices at the Food and Drug Administration, and funds states to fight the opioid epidemic.