Federal Budget at First Focus Campaign for Children

Pages tagged "Federal Budget"

Featured Post

160 leading child welfare advocates urge Congress to adopt President Obama’s proposals

June 01, 2015

Washington – A letter sent today by 160 leading children’s advocacy organizations urges Congress to support President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2016 proposed investments in child welfare. The letter was coordinated by First Focus Campaign for Children, Children’s Defense Fund, Child Welfare League of America, Foster Family-based Treatment Association, Generations United, National Foster Care Coalition, and Voice for Adoption.

“The federal budget reflects our nation’s priorities,” said Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus Campaign for Children. “Congress can make our most vulnerable children and families a priority by supporting President Obama’s child welfare proposals.”

The letter is addressed to the leadership of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and the Human Resources Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, which have jurisdiction over a number of child welfare programs. In additional to the coordinating groups, signatories of the letter include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities.

Federal investments in child welfare have historically been targeted at supporting foster care rather than prevention, interventions, and treatments that keep children out of foster care. President Obama’s proposed FY 2016 budget would:

Increase investments in evidence-based prevention and post-permanency supports for children at risk of entering foster care;
Encourage family-based care, including relative care, rather than group homes for children and youth; and
Reduce overprescribing of psychotropic medications for children and youth in foster care.

“When Congress invests in prevention and early intervention, families stay together and children never come to the attention of child welfare in the first place,” said Lesley.

Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is the major federal source of funding for child welfare services. Beginning in 2012, states were given the authority through waivers to use Title IV-E to test innovation and learn about what works best.

President Obama’s budget builds on lessons from the waivers and reinforces the importance of increased federal support for a range of prevention and early intervention services. Title IV-E waivers, meant to be temporary and informative, will end in FY 2019, increasing the urgency that Congress invest now in services for children, youth, and families involved in child welfare.

Federal investments in child welfare have decreased about 3 percent since FY 2011, adjusted for inflation. President Obama’s proposed budget would reverse that trend, and increase investments in child abuse and neglect by 6.3 percent from FY 2015.

“We hope and expect that policymakers who are serious about reducing child abuse and neglect will support the administration’s child welfare budget,” said Lesley. “Congress needs to make greater long-term federal investments to keep children safe and in permanent families.”

Download the letter.

# # #

The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization. The Campaign for Children advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit www.ffcampaignforchildren.org.

Featured Post

A federal focus on prevention would help in Minnesota

May 18, 2015

Minneapolis Star Tribune

By Bruce Lesley

Yes, progress on child abuse and neglect will require real investments (“Better child protection is going to cost,” May 12). But reform in Washington could accelerate progress, by focusing on prevention. Federal funding shortchanges prevention efforts that help parents manage mental health, substance abuse, financial distress, and other abuse and neglect risk factors. Today, the federal government pays $4 for foster care for every $1 on prevention. And federal foster care funding is insufficient, covering less than half of eligible kids. Continued underfunding of prevention will only drain this already-shallow funding pool.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is developing legislation to invest in prevention. His plan would allow federal funds to help at-risk kids before they enter foster care, and it directs increased investments to prevention initiatives with proven track records of effectiveness. The likely result: stronger families, safer children and better value for taxpayers. Local and state resources are absolutely essential. But better federal child abuse and neglect policy would make every local and state dollar invested go further. If Minnesota wants better outcomes for kids, Minnesota’s leaders in Congress must also reform child abuse and neglect funding...

Bruce Lesley, Washington, D.C.

The writer is president of the First Focus Campaign for Children.

Read more

Featured Post

Legislature's shortsighted decision will have terrible consequences

May 15, 2015

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Bruce Lesley

You rightly observed (“Sleep safer," May 11) that Missouri’s Legislature acted this month to protect kids from one danger, while increasing their vulnerability to another: child abuse and neglect. But Washington also has work to do, and National Foster Care Month is the time to do it.

Financial distress, unmet mental health needs, substance abuse problems and other risk factors contribute to abuse and neglect. By cutting supports for low-income families, the Legislature increased the risks. This shortsighted decision will have fiscal as well as terrible human consequences...

Read more

Featured Post

Reform foster funding

May 14, 2015

Lincoln Journal-Star

By Bruce Lesley

It’s ironic that child abuse prevention legislation was vetoed (“Senator considering options on veto override on child welfare bill,” April 30) during national Child Abuse Prevention Month, but Washington is an obstacle to progress, too.

Federal foster care's shrinking funding pool covers less than half of foster children today, and fewer by 2024. States tap other social services funding, but that just shifts resources from one set of kids and families to another. Worse yet, federal funding shortchanges prevention efforts that help parents manage mental health, substance abuse, financial distress and other abuse and neglect risk factors...

Read more

Featured Post

Kids Agenda for the 114th Congress

February 24, 2015

More than eight million children will be born in the United States during the 114th Congress. The decisions Congress makes about issues ranging from education to tax and immigration policy will shape their lives. Whether the next two years accelerate or impede the healthy development of those children is up to them.

First Focus Campaign for Children recommends this policy agenda to address the most pressing problems facing America’s children. The agenda is made up of six broad categories: ensuring a healthy future, ensuring every child a safe and permanent home, reducing child poverty, expanding opportunity through education and early childhood, valuing children and families, and investing in children and reforming government. Within each category is a list of goals and actions Congress can take to improve the lives of our children.

Featured Post

Obama Budget Makes Children a Priority

February 02, 2015

Washington – The White House today released a federal budget proposing increased investments benefiting nearly every aspect of a child’s life. Key elements of the president’s budget for children include:

Increased funding to make quality child care affordable for more working families, plus expanded reach for the federal child care tax credit and a new “second earner” credit to help dual-income families manage child care costs;
Stronger investments in early learning, including a more intensive Head Start initiative, increased preschool development grant funding, and continued funding for evidence-based voluntary home visiting;
Extending funding for the bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program through 2019;
A renewed commitment to public schools, with additional funding for teacher preparation, incentives to eliminate school funding disparities, and funding for school-community partnerships designed to help disadvantaged students succeed;
Funding to reduce the incidence of youth violence and support states’ work with youth offenders;
Increased funding for family housing vouchers;
Supporting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), which allocates nearly half of its funding to children in homes affected by hunger;
Repealing federal budget sequestration, ending arbitrary budget caps for a wide range of children’s initiatives;
Increased funding for child abuse and neglect prevention, as well as a new initiative to reduce the incidence of over-prescription of psychotropic medications to children in foster care

Reacting to the president’s budget proposal, the First Focus Campaign for Children released the following statement from its president, Bruce Lesley:

“From child care to high school, quality health care to preventing abuse and neglect, President Obama’s budget represents a real reinvestment in America’s children. Whether or not Congress adopts these specific proposals, the president’s budget is a model for a federal budget that makes kids a priority, not an afterthought.”

###

The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization. The Campaign for Children advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit campaignforchildren.org.

Featured Post

Here's what Eric Cantor didn't say

January 09, 2015

CNBC

By Bruce Lesley

Former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor did something in his Monday commentary ("Here's what Congress needs to do in 2015") most politicians never do: put children first. His observation that 8,053,000 children will be born during this Congress is a powerful reminder about the consequences of congressional action or inaction. Those consequences aren't just measured in news cycles dominated, elections won, and legislatures controlled. They're measured in children's lives.

What's missing from Congressman Cantor's commentary is the sweeping range of issues before Congress with the potential to fundamentally impact America's children. But, using data from the nonpartisan Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Center, that's a picture we can paint...

Featured Post

Top 10 for Kids in 2014 (First Focus Campaign for Children)

January 08, 2015

Over the last year, First Focus Campaign for Children has been hard at work making children and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. Below is the list of our most popular resources for child advocates, policy makers, and the media in 2014. See the top 10 resources of our partners at First Focus.

1. Record Number of Homeless Students in U.S. Schools (Statement): Coalition statement on U.S. Department of Education data showing the United States has a record number of homeless K-12 students with over 1.2 million children being counted, an increase of 8 percent from the previous school year. 81 percent of the children are not recognized as homeless by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which prioritizes homeless adults.

2. 750+ Leaders’ Letter to Congress: Extend funding for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (Letter): Over 750 leading national, state, tribal, and local organizations and elected officials wrote to Congress to urge a funding extension of the bipartisan Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV program).

3. 2014 Champions for Children (Awards): Champions and Defenders of Children awards recognize the top 100 Members of Congress working to make children and families a national priority in federal policy and budget decisions.

4. Dr. Phil and 100+ Organizations to Congress: Protect Kids from Overmedication (Press release): Dr. Phil McGraw, the leading mental health expert, television personality and outspoken children’s rights activist, cosigned a letter joining more than 100 organizations urging lawmakers to support a budget initiative aimed at reducing unwarranted overmedication of children in foster care. We coordinated the letter in partnership with Voice for Adoption, a national organization advocating for children in foster care.

5. CHIP is Critical for the Future of Children’s Health (Fact sheet): This paper discusses how the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) fits into today’s health care system, focusing on why CHIP continues to be an essential source of coverage for kids. It also underscores the consequences for children’s health of the coming funding crisis and why protecting the future of children’s health means continued funding.

6. Voters Support CHIP Extension (Poll): We commissioned opinion research to assess public support for CHIP. The survey, completed by the Republican opinion research firm American Viewpoint, found nearly three-fourths of likely voters support the extension of CHIP funding.

7. Reject Congressman Issa’s DACA Proposal (Letter): Letter to all members of the House of Representatives regarding the misguided, irresponsible, and mean-spirited Dear Colleague letter circulated by Congressman Darrel Issa in the June The Congressman’s letter proposed to address the issue of an increase of child refugees fleeing terrible and unspeakably violent circumstances and arriving at the Southern Border by eliminating the highly successful and popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative.

8. Homeless Children and Youth Act to Close Gaps in HUD Services (Blog post): This blog post covers the over 1 million homeless children in the United States, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s current definition of homelessness that excludes these children, and proposed legislation that would make several changes to the HUD definition and grant awards process in an effort to improve flexibility and efficiency.

9. Bipartisan Bill Re-Examines Overuse of Standardized Tests (Blog post): This blog post discusses how students, teachers, and schools have become unnecessarily overburdened by the growth of standardized testing and how proposed legislation would end mandatory over-testing and return to standardized tests offered once per grade span.

10. Protect her from harm (Advertisement): This advertisement, circulated to Congress, urges lawmakers to vote against a proposal that would have harmed over 1 million children and driven more families into poverty.

Featured Post

Welcome back to Congress, Defenders of Children!

January 07, 2015

This week, the 114^thsession of Congress was gaveled into order. Among it were 45 returning membersrecognized as First Focus Campaign for Children 2014 Defenders of Children. Defenders of Children support efforts to advance policies to improve the well-being of America’s children.

The new Congress is a new opportunity for children’s advocates, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, future parents, pediatricians to share how important it is that children are the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. A recent poll of House and Senate offices by the Congressional Management Foundation found that most consider less than 30 social media comments enough to gain attention on an issue. And over half said that just a single constituent is enough to be influential.

Please take a minute to welcome back on Twitter the 2014 Defenders of Children, thank them for making it their priority to invest in kids, and share with them the issues important to you in the New Year. You can use the suggested tweet below, or find your Congressional representatives’ Twitter account by state. You can also see and thank returning Champions or Children, the highest level of recognition, here.

Welcome back to Congress, @Campaign4Kids Defender of Children @MemberTwitter! Please continue to make children the priority, #InvestInKids.
Tweet this now.

Alaska
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)California
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA)
Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA)
Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA)
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rep. David Valadao (R-CA)

Connecticut
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)

Florida
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)

Georgia
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA)

Illinois
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

Iowa
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Louisiana
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-LA)

Maryland
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

Massachusetts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

Michigan
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI)

Minnesota
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN)

Mississippi
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)Nevada
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

New Jersey
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (D-NJ)
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ)

New Mexico
Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)

New York
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Rep. Peter King (R-NY)
Rep. José Serrano (D-NY)
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY)

Ohio
Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH)
Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH)

Oregon
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)

Pennsylvania
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA)

Rhode Island
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

South Carolina
Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)

Utah
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Featured Post

Welcome back to Congress, Champions for Children!

January 06, 2015

This week, the 114^th session of Congress was gaveled into order. Among it were 46 returning members recognized as First Focus Campaign for Children 2014 Champions for Children. Champions for Children make extraordinary efforts to protect and improve the future of America’s next generation.

Please take a minute to welcome back on Twitter the 2014 Champions for Children, thank them for making it their priority to invest in kids, and share with them the issues important to you in the New Year. You can use the suggested tweet below, or find your Congressional representatives' Twitter account by state. You can also see and thank returning Defenders of Children, the next highest honor, here.

Welcome back to Congress, @Campaign4Kids Champion for Children @MemberTwitter! Please continue to make children the priority, #InvestInKids.
Tweet this now.