Social Services Block Grant (

The common narrative on the many iterations of the Republican-led tax reform package is that it adds something in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion to the deficit. Various ideas on how to add more revenue to the plan have been bandied about by deficit hawks in the past few days to address that deficit.

Talk to child welfare advocates about federal child welfare finance reform and the conversation almost immediately turns to Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. This is for good reason: Title IV-E, including the foster care, guardianship and adoption assistance programs, represents the only federal entitlement program targeted specifically to the needs of children who have experienced abuse and neglect.

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.

While millions of Americans have found relief in Congress’ failure thus far to come to an agreement on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, this remains a perilous time at the federal level for children’s programs.

Since the election of Donald Trump, there have been glimpses of the potential fallout for vulnerable children in foster care — those whom the state is responsible for parenting. We are looking at the possibility of disastrous cuts that will adversely affect children and families for generations to come.

As I mentioned in a prior piece in this series, the federal child welfare advocacy community increasingly seems myopically focused on increasing federal funding for “prevention.” Unfortunately, few, if any, are able to paint a picture of what increased investment in prevention would look like.

The Obama administration has demonstrated in recent weeks that when it is committed to an issue, it will go to great lengths to make things happen. Take criminal and juvenile justice reform.

Just before Congress called it a summer, lead staffers for two Senate leaders on child welfare put together what amounted to a rapid-fire pitch meeting for child welfare policy ideas. Kathy Nuebel and Libby Whitbeck – staffers for Sens.