Ways and Means

As mentioned here last week, tomorrow the House Ways and Means Committee will begin the process of possibly reauthorizing the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV). The program, which was enacted under the Affordable Care Act, funds efforts to pair new or expecting parents with professionals.

Key House and Senate Committees have agreed on legislation that would renew federal adoption incentives, require states to count failed adoptions, and prohibit states from using long-term foster care as a viable form of permanency for most teens.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) included a major federal investment in home visitation programs, which support new and expectant mothers by sending trained workers and/or health professionals into homes. Experts told the House Ways and Means Subommittee on Human Resources last week that the investment should continue, with reasonable expectations.

During the perpetual polar vortex of congressional cooperation that marked 2013, it looked like both chambers and parties had come to some consensus on a few legislative changes to adoption, foster care, and child support enforcement.